


And we will put the lonesome on the shelf

by seriesofvignettes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (this is really just self-indulgence), Alternate Universe - America, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Anxiety, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, M/M, Multi, Non-binary character, Polyamory, Queer Themes, Slow Build - kind of, Trans Character, i just want everyone to be happy and cute and queer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2018-09-23 14:48:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 36,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9662039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seriesofvignettes/pseuds/seriesofvignettes
Summary: To fight boredom, an empty mansion, and the reminders of his dead parents that linger there, Draco Malfoy makes a bold return to Hogwarts University, determined and ready for a change. Draco enters the new year with almost no expectations but ends up discovering more than he could have ever imagined - friendship, a frozen yogurt place, a dog named Fluffy, and even a little romance - along the way.





	1. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title: from song 'You and I' by Ingrid Michaelson
> 
> [also - i'm a white cisgender queer woman, and i'm just writing based on my own experiences mostly. i made sure to consult some of my friends who are trans and non-binary, but please please please let me know if i anything i wrote makes you uncomfortable or anything. i dont want to hurt anyone and i'd like to learn from and rectify my mistakes if i do]
> 
> [found some mistakes so this has been edited, hopefully this time, I caught everything]

Draco Malfoy lay on his bed half naked, his fingers trailing up and down the fine hairs on his stomach as a warm breeze drifted in his room through the windows that lined the opposite wall, dragging the loose curtains with it as it went. He sighed to himself, not for the first time, as he stared up as the plain blue-ish grey ceiling above him. He was bored. He was twenty years old, and he was bored. He knew he didn’t have to be, but there are only so many times a person can masturbate in one afternoon and he had no interest anymore in the books that lay in scattered piles on the floor around his bed. It wasn’t like he couldn’t think of anything to do, it just that he had no desire to do any of the things he had at his disposal, which was why he was bored.

This feeling of listless apathy was pervasive throughout more than just that single early June day; it bled through the many of them especially the late ones, through the weeks and the months that the made up the summer. Interests piqued and then were put to rest easily and without ceremony. He spent his days holed up in the Manor and resolutely did not feel guilty about his inactivity. One day, when the humid month of August was doing its very best, quite notably so, to ruin Draco’s hair and mood, he spent a lazy sweaty morning creating a rather bland omelet full of things that should have had flavor but didn’t, though that was more due to Draco’s taste buds than anything else, really. The coffee beans, that he found the energy to grind and deposit in his coffee machine, helped make the sticky morning a little more bearable with their rich, comforting aroma. Draco let his coffee grow cold, though it was an act that allowed himself a much needed relief from the monotony of ice water during his summer experience. But, as it were, the coffee grew mildly chilly and a little too sweet as the Manor’s air grew warm and thick. Draco felt the creeping dullness slither around his feet and up into the bones of his toes. The afternoon drew on wearily but at least he found the energy to build himself a small, sweet snack a few hours into the afternoon. What meager drive Draco managed to compile that morning dissipated and left him feeling weak. It was not until the coolness of the evening pressed down on Draco’s shirtless body that he managed to do much more than sigh to himself or flip through pages of a random book. He forced himself to rise from his reclined position and find a telephone to order in dinner, an act that seen as one of laziness but to Draco was an anxiety inducing exercise in social interaction over the phone with a stranger and having to make an actual decision. The thought of chewing and swallowing food was slightly nauseating to Draco, but he knew he needed to eat.

That night, as he picked his way though General Tso’s chicken and broccoli with garlic sauce, Draco contemplated the life he was currently embarking on. His parents had died when Draco was just about to start his Spring semester of his Freshman year, a year and a half ago. He pulled himself out of school and took some time away from, well, everything. He found himself a few menial and mind-numbing part time jobs throughout the later progression of months to keep himself from dwelling too much on the reality of his life. At the beginning of this specific summer, however, he decided to quit his job and spent most of it moping around the house his family left behind. It wasn’t like Draco really needed the job, but it had been a nice thing to pass the time and find some sort of responsibility. The problem was that the job that he managed to acquire ended up boring him too much, which was why he quit in the first place. But it also had become tiresome to interact with customers and often Draco left his job feeling more uncomfortable than not in his own skin. In leaving his post, he created a situation that allowed him to be just as bored and uncomfortable, but in the privacy of his own home instead of at a commercial institution. That night, Draco didn’t so much fall asleep as he did melt into his bed and let his consciousness bleed away once he had finished his dinner, mostly because he couldn’t think of anything better to do. The next morning was a little different.

Draco’s eyes opened to the bright summer morning having forgotten to close his windows and curtains the day before, which was not something unusual. In response, Draco generally would shift onto his stomach, stick his head under his pillow and hope to fall asleep once more. It only worked half the time. This morning, Draco allowed himself to be woken up by the light and the sounds of summer insects that never truly went away. He sat up slowly, heard his joints cracking with the movement and enjoyed the stretch of his skin and muscles as he began to use them. Yawning, he headed to the bathroom down the hallway from his room, removing his shorts as he went. After a shower that helped relieve the knots of tension that had formed in his sleep, Draco dried off, put on a new pair of boxers, and made his way down to the small dining area where he knew breakfast would be. He hadn’t been down to this part of the house in over two weeks, choosing instead to utilize the small kitchen in a separate wing of the Manor that was kept well stocked but did not have much traffic. His mother’s butler, Mr. Dobby, brought him a stack of mail to look at as he sat down.

“Mr. Malfoy, you haven’t gone through the mail in over a week,” he said quietly and then paused, causing Draco to look up at him, questioningly, “I’m worried about you.” He said sadly as he set the mail by Draco’s right elbow. “Please let me know if you need anything else.” Draco watched the older man leave and wondered why he hadn’t fired him yet. The constant reminder of his loss was a strain on his mood and appetite. 

To distract himself, Draco picked through the letters and postcards Mr. Dobby had brought for him. There wasn’t much other than bills and useless advertisements. The messages of condolences and goodwill that Draco had been drowning in without mercy from people who knew his parents stopped coming after the year anniversary of their death had passed which Draco was grateful for. The unimportant deliveries more like a breath of fresh air than anything.

A thicker letter caught his attention as he made his way through the small mountain of envelopes. It was from the Hogwarts University, better known as the HU, where Draco had taken a leave of absence for an undefined amount of time from once he no longer had a living family and found himself unable to focus on his studies. Draco gingerly picked up the letter and spun it around in his hands before letting out a huff of air and tearing it open. Inside was a series of documents that he slowly unfurled on the table before him.

> Dear Draco Abraxas Malfoy,
> 
> We hope that the time you have taken from your education has been fulfilling and gave you the space you required to return to your studies. After this coming semester, your ability to maintain a place at this school without taking classes will have run out and your spot will be given away to a transfer student on our waiting list.
> 
> Hogwarts University is a small institution and we care very much about our students. We are informing you of this not to put pressure on you but to inform you of your position so that you can make informed decisions about the next few years of your life.
> 
> We hope that you return to your studies and this school, but we understand if you chose not to. Please make a decision as soon as you are able, preferably before this coming Fall semester starts or the Spring semester after it so that we can give our transfer student the time they need to prepare.
> 
> The other documents in this letter are for you to fill out if you decide to return in a few weeks for the Fall semester. Please mail them back as soon as possible or fax them to our admissions office.
> 
> Please do not hesitate to call for any questions or concerns regarding this letter, the additional documents, or anything else.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Ms. Minerva McGonagall
> 
> Undergraduate Administrations
> 
> Hogwarts University

Draco reread the letter three times, worrying the edges of the paper with his fingertips. His heart clenched and thumped loudly in his chest at this new information. It was something to think about that he had not even considered. He wondered if going back to school might help cure this apathetic attitude and listlessness that hindered his human experience this past summer.

“Mr. Dobby!” Draco called over his shoulder, to the general area where he assumed he would be. “Do you mind coming here for a moment, I have a question!” Mr. Dobby came a few moments later, looking a bit out of breath and actually surprised to be acknowledged.

“Yes, Mr. Malfoy. What can I help you with?”

“Here, look at this,” Draco said as he handed his butler the letter, “I need help making a decision.”

Mr. Dobby took a moment to read it before saying, “Mr. Malfoy, this isn’t a decision I can help you make, but I can help you figure out the logistics once you make one for yourself.”

“I just... I’m just really not sure what I want to do.”

Mr. Dobby nodded, “Why don’t I help you write a pro and con list? That might help a little.”

Draco looked down at the table cloth in front of him, hiding the deep beautiful wood of the table under it. He thought it over quickly and then said decisively, “Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, let’s do that.”

“Good,” Mr. Dobby said, nodding again, reminding Draco of a bobble-head, “I’ll go get something to write down your ideas. Why don’t you take some time to eat breakfast? It might help you think more clearly.” The two men then began moving around the room, Mr. Dobby in search of writing utensils and Draco to fill a plate with food. Along the wall on the left side of the room was a mini buffet table that was mostly empty aside from some bowls of fruit, a bread basket, a toaster, butter, raspberry jam, and a coffee machine with all the necessary ingredients. Draco took a moment to cut himself a few slices of nectarine to add to the collection of raspberry and blackberries he already put on a plate. He prepared a cup of coffee as two slices of bread got crispy and warm in the toaster. By the time he returned to his seat and spread butter and jam on his toast, Mr. Dobby was already sitting in the seat to the right of Draco’s, a pen and a yellow legal pad directly in front of him. “Why don’t you eat and talk while I take notes and then you can make a decision based on that later.”

Draco inclined his head in acknowledgement and popped a berry into his mouth. He hummed to himself as he chewed, formulating his thoughts on the matter at hand. “Can you make two columns, a Pro one and a Con one?”

“Certainly, sir,” was the reply, “Let me know when you are ready to begin.”

***

It didn’t take long for Draco to decide that he wanted to go back to school. In fact, he barely had begun his process of pro-con-ing the idea when he realized it was probably the right thing to do. He was endlessly bored in his home and very much did not want to re-join the general workforce. He was sure there were other options to consider, like traveling or creating some kind of project for himself, but both of those things probably took an extraordinary amount of planning in comparison with returning to his studies. He filled out the forms and faxed it to the school, figuring he had already opened the letter later than he was supposed to and did not want to have them wait much longer to answer. He also asked Mr. Dobby to place a call to the university in order to schedule an in-person meeting with Ms. McGonagall and set everything in order.

Draco spent the rest of the day watching Netflix to take his mind off of what was to come. He ended up making an enormous amount of popcorn for himself and resolvded to stay in the small movie theater in the basement of the Manor until it was all gone. (It was a room Draco designed while tired at work one day and later managed to convince himself it wasn’t a ridiculous use of the money left for him by his dead parents.) Draco rarely used the movie theater room until now, however, as it usually provided him with feelings of excitement or passion, which very often was too over stimulating for such a bored and listless person. Draco made sure not to forget its existence though, merely choosing to avoid it. He still felt like it was a bit an inconsiderate choice that he made with his inheritance.

Two nights later, on the eve of Draco’s meeting with Ms. McGonagall, he lay in bed, unable to drift off into any sort of slumber, even an unsatisfying one. He was keyed up and anxious, knowing that this meeting was the beginning of a new chapter in his foreseeable future. He ordered Japanese food earlier that night because he had thought it a calming and relaxing meal but now, hours later, he was rethinking his complete ability to make decisions, from food choices to life ones. Finally, after sighing a few too many times at his now dark ceiling, Draco reached over to his bedside table and pulled his laptop onto the bed. He sat up with it and browsed through random tabs and internet pages, unsure of what he wanted to do, just knowing that he wanted to do something until he realized that perhaps he wanted to watch a movie, a feel-good one at that. So Draco found a good, albeit illegal, online version of Josie and the Pussycats and settled into his pillows. It made him feel a bit reckless if he was going to be honest with himself and it was nice to watch something in the comfort of his bed and not alone in a mini-movie theater.

Mr. Dobby, when he noticed that Draco had not come down for breakfast like he had informed him he would, went to check on the young man and found him still asleep in an awkward position with his laptop open and dark, half on the Draco’s lap.

“Mr. Malfoy,” he said, in a quiet but strong voice, “Mr. Malfoy, you need to wake up. You have an important meeting in an hour and a half.” Mr. Dobby poked Draco gently on the shoulder as he talked, “Mr. Malfoy, you were supposed to be awake twenty minutes ago… Mr. Mafoy, Mr. Malfoy,” and finally Draco began to stir, shifting the laptop along with his body. He murmured indistinguishably as he did so and Mr. Dobby smiled softly and allowed him a moment before continuing to wake Draco up.

“What?....oh. ok. Thanks Mr. Dobby. I’m awake now,” Draco mumbling, moving into a more comfortable sitting-up position. The butler left the room quietly, trusting Draco to be able to rouse himself and do the things he needed to prepare for his meeting.

***

Draco nervously stepped out of his car in the parking lot in front of the administration office of Hogwarts University. He pulled at the sleeves of his jacket and the buttons of his shirt as he made his way toward the building. Draco pushed through the glass doors easily and walked the few steps it took to the welcome desk of the office. A young man sat behind it with curly dark hair and wire rimmed glasses that were falling off his nose. He seemed very engrossed in the book he kept under the wood of the desk, head bowed and unobservant. Draco hesitated before disrupting the man’s concentration, watching him quietly for a second before clearing his throat in a way he hoped wasn’t overly annoying.

“Um, hello?” Draco ventured, taking a half step forward, “I have an appointment with Ms. McGonagall in about ten minutes. Am I in the right place?” The man behind the desk quickly looked up and focused his startling green eyes on Draco. He pushed the glasses back to the top of his nose, Draco’s eyes followed the movement.

“Uh, yeah. You’re in the right place. Why don’t you take a seat over there,” he pointed towards a waiting area, “And I’ll go tell her you’re here. What’s your name?”

“Okay, thanks,” Draco moved towards a comfy looking blue couch, “and my name is Draco Malfoy.”

“Cool, I’m Harry,” was all the man said, jumping up from his chair behind the desk and walking down a hallway and out of sight. Draco settled down in the armchair, gazing around the room at the different pamphlets and posters that decorated it, all advertising different things about the university. He picked up the school’s literary magazine from the previous year that was sitting on the coffee table near him and leafed through it, taking his time to look over the art and let unfamiliar words wash over him. As he did this, Harry returned to his post and resumed reading whatever he had hidden behind the desk.

A few minutes later, a sinister looking woman emerged from the hallway that was previously used by the front desk man. She looked over at the waiting area and her eyes landed on Draco. “Draco Malfoy?” She asked.

“Yes.” He replied, hoping there wasn’t anything else he was supposed to have said to the desk operator earlier.

“Good. Follow me, please.” She turned back the way she had come, Draco stood swiftly and followed her, watching the tight bun she had pulled her hair into at the back of her head move up and down as she walked. The hallway wasn’t very long, but they passed a significant amount of rooms which Draco assumed were offices before they turned left into Room 1031. Ms. McGonagall stepped behind her desk and sat down, motioning for Draco to settle into the seat opposite from her. Draco noticed a jar of cookies and a small stuffed dragon that disrupted the organized desk in front of him. She saw him looking around and said, “Mr. Malfoy, would you like a cookie?”

Draco was taken aback by the question and merely shook his head, weirded out that she would offer him a cookie in the first place. Ms. McGonagall seemed to notice his surprise and her eyes crinkled in a way that seemed like she was hiding a smile.

“Well, we received your forms and everything seems to be in order. I reviewed it all before this meeting,” She said and motioned to a small stack of papers on her desk. “Unless you have concerns or questions, the only thing you have left to do is enroll in classes for this semester. It is a bit late, so there might not be as many choices are you would like, but I am positive you will be able to find classes you want. Worst comes to worst, you’ll have to put yourself on a waiting list for a class, but that’s not a bad option, really. Did you have any questions?”

Draco had been looking at Ms. McGonagall until he realized it was his turn to speak. His eyes looked down to trace the lines of the desk in front of him as he opened his mouth, “I – um – I guess I didn’t really have any questions,” he stammered before letting the words rush out of his mouth, “I just felt like I should come in and talk to someone before I re-enrolled here. I was worried the fax wasn’t enough. So I guess – I guess there isn’t much point to this meeting, seeing as I can just enroll in classes online. I’m sorry to have taken up your time,” Draco finished nervously, feeling awkward and out of place. He finally looked up from the desk and into Ms. McGonagall’s eyes, which were soft despite her hard appearance.

“Mr. Malfoy, I understand that you are nervous. It’s good that you came in to talk in person. Maybe next time, it would be wise to write down questions that you have before setting up a meeting. As I wrote in my letter to you earlier this month, this University is a small one and we like to take care of our students, so don’t worry too much. Why don’t you go back into the waiting area and take some time to sign up for classes? After that, you can come back in here and we can close this meeting up. The main thing to remember, Mr. Malfoy, is that we want to make sure this transition is as painless as possible. So take your time, and breathe.”

Draco nodded to Ms. McGonagall and rose from his seat. He walked his way back to the main entrance and through the doors, going to his car to collect his bag which contained his laptop.

Fifteen minutes later, he was still sitting in the waiting room, struggling to balance picking classes, making a schedule, and the effort to feel motivated to do those things. Draco had sighed to himself more than once, each time, catching Harry’s attention away from his book. Finally, at the fourth noisy sigh, Harry called out to Draco from his desk, “Do you need some help?”

Draco blushed in embarrassment, he hadn’t meant to disturb Harry, but nodded despite himself. Harry grinned over at him before making his way over to the couch and plopping down.

“What can I help you with, then?”

“Well I’m supposed to enroll in classes from this coming semester. Most of the classes are already full and I know that I should have started trying to do this months ago, but I didn’t decide to come back to school until about a week ago, so I didn’t really have a lot of options.” Draco said all of this in a rush, and his face flushed a deeper red. Harry nodded along with his words and gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

“Ok yeah, that makes total sense. I mean, even choosing classes at a normal time is stressful.”

“I know, I’ve done this before, it’s just been a while.”

“Oh, why?” Harry asked before jumping up and towards his computer, “I’m just gonna get some paper and a pen so that you can write things out instead of keeping it all in your head.”

“That’s a good idea thank you.” Draco responded, watching as Harry retrieved the office supplies and sat back down. “I was a freshman here a little less than two years ago, so I went through the signing-up-for-class thing before. I uh…” Draco’s words faded away as he tried to formulate a response that did not require talking about his late parents as being a reason for not returning after one semester, “I just spent some time away, but I’m back now.”

“Nice.” Harry said simply. Draco figured he either wasn’t interested in why Draco had taken time off of school or had picked up on the fact that he didn’t want to talk about it, because Harry shifted the subject and began asking him questions about classes he had taken before and what he wanted to study. They worked on a class list and a schedule for a little while, Harry reminding Draco of general education requirements he needed to complete and helping him research the professors to make sure they were the kind of teachers that Draco could handle. It was a mostly easy process; Draco found that he was feeling calmer and only sighed a few more times. He ended up enrolling in five classes, but knew that he could drop one of them if he wanted to - if it ended up being too much. His schedule was kind of a mess and he had classes on Fridays, but that wasn’t a big deal and he couldn’t think of anything he would be doing over the weekend anyway. Harry was actually going to be in one of the classes he was going to take - History of Sexuality - and Draco was slightly relieved. He was sure that Harry would have other friends in the class and might not remember him, but it would be nice to see a familiar face every once in awhile.

Draco walked back down the hallway to Ms. McGonagall’s office once more, this time a little lighter on his feet and a bit more confident, carrying his open laptop with him. She called for him to come in when he knocked on the door and she seemed to notice his change in energy, and smiled at him.

“Figured it all out?” She asked and gestured for him to sit across from her again.

“Yeah. Harry - the guy behind the desk - helped me out. I picked out five classes, but I might end up just taking four.”

“Good. I’m glad Mr. Potter was a resource for you.” She said as turned towards her desktop computer, “I have already granted you access to complete the final step in the online portal so you can officially enroll in your classes.” Draco nodded at those words and followed her instructions, clicking the buttons on the screen in front of him to complete the process. When it was done, he looked up at her. She was leaning across the desk with his cookie jar open and an expectant look in her eyes. “Take a cookie, Mr. Malfoy.”

Startled, Draco complied and took one. As he bit into it, he remembered one of the questions that he had forgotten. “I remembered one of the questions that I wanted to ask you!” He said and Ms. McGonagall inclined her head in a manner that told him to share his thought. He chewed his bite and swallowed before asking “Do I need to get a dorm on campus? I, uh, I, have a house already. It’s not too far away, but I was just wondering about that.”

“Ah yes, I did want to discuss that with you. We do require that Freshmen and Sophomores live on campus in the dorms. Your situation is unique, however. I think it would be best for you to live on campus just like everyone else, but you do have the option to remain at your house instead or any other places of residence. It’s up to you.” Ms. McGonagall answered.

Draco looked down at his hands which were holding twisted strangely around the half-eaten sweet. His experiences of the past few months floated through his mind - the boredom that snaked its way through his veins, the dust that settled on his skin from the unused air of the still and quiet mansion that surrounded him. He took a small breath before meeting her bespectacled eyes, “I’ve thought about this a bit since I sent in the fax with my information. I do want to live on campus in a dorm - but in a single. I don’t think I could handle living with another person.” He flushed slightly and looked away. “ There wasn’t anything wrong with the roommate I had a few years ago - Theo was fine. I think I just need my own space.”

“I’ll see what I can do for you, Mr. Malfoy. Don’t get your hopes up though, it’s very late for housing requests. I will either call you or send you an email as soon as I can. And if you have no further questions, take another cookie to give to Mr. Potter on your way out.” Draco stared at Ms. McGonagall for a moment, taking in the hard lines of her face and her soft eyes, the tight way her hair was pulled back and the soft velvety look of the clothes she wore. 

“No, I don’t have any other questions,” Draco replied slowly before reaching up to the open jar and taking another cookie. “Thank you very much for taking the time to talk to me. This has been very helpful.”

As he stood, balancing his laptop and the two cookies in his hands, Ms. McGonagall wished him a good day and followed him so she could close the door once he existed it. Draco walked back to the couch and packed away his laptop, placing the cookies on the coffee table in front of it. Then he made his way out of the building, stopping at Harry’s desk for a moment to pass along the treat.

“Ms. McGonagall told me to give this to you. Thank you so much for helping me out.”

“Awesome! Thanks and you’re welcome! See you soon.” Harry called after Draco, and he turned around.

“Yeah, see you.” Draco said, and waved awkwardly over his shoulder, before heading through the glass doors to the outside world, taking a second bite out of the soft chocolate chip cookie as he did.

***

Packing up his belongings did not take Draco as long as he thought it would. Mr. Dobby helped by retrieving suitcases from somewhere Draco didn’t know and by quietly bringing items to him that were scattered around the mansion. They had discussed whether or not to close the mansion while Draco was away and decided against it. It would be good for Draco to have somewhere to go if he needed space, especially since he hadn’t been able to get the housing he wanted, and Mr. Dobby was not inclined to find another place to live. 

Ms. McGonagall had called a few days after their meeting. She informed him that moving in day for returning students was September first and of the rooming arrangements she had been able to arrange for him. He would get a pseudo-single in Prefect Hall (where mostly upperclassmen lived), meaning he would have his own room but one that was attached to another person’s room with a bathroom to share. He would have his own sleeping space but not his own living space, which was disappointing but decidedly acceptable. He hadn’t expected to get any kind of single and he tried to count himself as lucky. Ms. McGonagall assured him that it was a good option and that the person he was paired with would most likely be someone he could get along with. She also told him that she was sending an email with everything she had just shared and more logistical information for the moving in day, but he could call again if he had any questions.

In the week following the phone call, Draco split his time actually readings the some of the books scattered around his room, caving into watching Netflix, and anxiously checking his suitcases to make sure he had everything he would need. He tried to reassure himself that because the mansion was close to the school, he could always drive back to it and get what he forgot, but the thought of leaving this home tied his stomach in knots every once in awhile - and he had to make sure. The new worlds he read and watched took his mind off most of it and the food that Mr. Dobby had started to bring to him, either in his room or the entertainment room, helped made him feel more substantial. Draco hadn’t asked his butler to do this, but allowed him to without protest once he started. He figured that this was just Mr. Dobby’ way of showing that he would miss him and left it at that.

Unsurprisingly, Draco had a nightmare the night before the day he moved to school, it was mostly due to the anxiety coursing through his veins, but he blamed it on his Criminal Minds marathon the day before. Draco woke up and blearily blinked up at the clock on his bedside table, realizing it was two hours earlier than he wanted to wake up. He shakily tumbled out of bed and into his shower, willing the heat of the water to melt the tension away. Draco spent a long time in the shower. He sat down on the floor of it, the water rushing down on his head, and breathed. The warmth helped him feel better, quelling the doubts and fears that clouded his mind and the after-effects of the terrible thing he dreamed about but could no longer remember. He took pleasure in of his morning erection just because he could, letting himself relax even further. Draco gave himself the mental space to think through everything - just in case - so that when he stepped out of the shower and faced the reality of the day, he would be okay. 

After dressing himself in his comfiest but publically acceptable clothes, Draco walked down the front of his home, to where his suitcases, boxes, and bag sat, waiting to be dragged into his car. He exited the mansion and walked to the garage to drive his car to the entrance. As he began to pile his possessions into the trunk, he wondered how much stuff other students would bring and worried about appearing strange, having too much or too little, about what his new roommate would think. He couldn’t remember the amount of things he brought with him to freshman year - it felt like such a long time ago. Thankfully, everything was easy to organize and fit without much effort, except for a few items Draco placed in the backseat of the car.

Draco went back into his home, into the now empty entrance hall, his hair still slightly damp from his shower not having dried in the cool morning air. He stood on the marble floor and slowly turned, eyes roving over the staircases that lead away from him, the heavy wooden doors, the side tables and vases of flowers and the paintings on the wall that he had known his whole life. He had done this two years ago when he first embarked on a journey to college, and now, doing so once again, he felt a few loose pieces fitting together in his chest. He knew he had made the right choice.

***

Ron Weasley was tired and bored. His mother had finally finished organizing everything in his room without consulting him at all about what he wanted. His father had already come and gone, making sure Ron was comfortable and had what he needed before giving him a short hug and wishing him good luck, before running off to his job he was already late for. Ron’s mom didn’t stay longer than she had to, either, though it felt like she had been there for a good amount time. She left him with a quick kiss on the cheek, a tight hug, and a promise to take him out to dinner in two weeks. He was used to it by now, they had done the same thing last year, and he saw them do the same for all his older siblings when they moved into their dorms or apartments, no matter how old they were. He found it quite endearing, if he was going to be honest with himself, and felt a rush of love for his parents as he watched his mother make her walk down the hallway to the elevator that would take her away. Ron knew this tradition was coming to a close, however, as he was the last and youngest child of the Weasley family. Of course, his parents would always do this kind of thing whenever he or any of his siblings moved locations, but it was strange to realize that this year and the next two were the last times they would ever move one of their children into a college dorm.

His new roommate hadn’t arrived and no one had texted to say hi yet so Ron slipped into his room and flopped onto the neatly made bed complete with extra pillows and a handmade blanket. He messed around on his phone while he waited for something to happen, whittling away an hours staring at an overly bright screen and giving himself a headache that he definitely did not deserve. Hungry and waiting to hear from Harry or Hermione or Krum, Ron riffled through his newly stocked mini-fridge to see what treats his mom had left him. He laughed out loud when he found a box of trix yogurts, and made a mental note to send his mom a nice text to thank her. He opened it and emptied the yogurt cups into the fridge, stacked them neatly, and then took one with him to the bed. He licked at the cup without bothering to find a spoon, happy to get a little messy with the sugar-filled treat. 

Ron had just pushed himself into a sitting position to throw the now empty yogurt cup into his trash bin when the main door of the living space opened to reveal a tall, skinny blonde man and an older guy in a fancy suit. Just as he was about to go and introduce himself, Ron’s cell phone dinged at him, alerting him that he had a text. He smiled at the new guy, waved a little awkwardly, and said, “Hi, I’m Ron,” before turning to grab his phone off his bed.

> [from Scarface 1:24] hey man
> 
> [from Scarface 1:24] just finished unpacking
> 
> [from Scarface 1:25] parents just left, told me to tell you they wish you a good semester lol 
> 
> [from Scarface 1:26] gonna stop by in a few once i find herman 
> 
> [to Scarface 1:27] my mom just left too - maybe theyll run into eachother. new roommate’s here. gonna say hi. txt me when you get to prefect ill let you up.
> 
> [Scarface 1:28] k 

Ron looked up from his phone to see the two men exiting the room - probably to get more luggage from the car or something, so he called after them, “Hey, do you need any help?” They both turned around and stared at him for a moment before they both smiled strangely at him.

The blonde one, most likely his roommate, nodded and said, “Yeah, if - if you want. I just got some more boxes and a suitcase. Oh, and I’m Draco by the way, Draco Malfoy.” Ron recognized the last name, from where he wasn’t sure.

“It would be nice to have an extra set of hands,” the older one added after introducing himself as Mr. Dobby.

Between the three of them, they easily managed to get everything from the car and take it back up to the rooms. Ron wondered if the two other men were related in some way, but Draco seemed, for lack of a better word, fancy and the other guy was probably his butler or something like that. They didn’t talk much to each other or him, but he didn’t mind. Ron was fine helping out, and hoped that it would contribute to a more positive roommate relationship than the one had had last year. He thought about his freshman year for the amount of time it took to bring the rest of Draco’s things up to his room. Creevey hadn’t been a terrible roommate, but he hadn’t been that great either. He hadn’t been so good at cleaning up after himself, knowing how to interact with Ron after realizing he was trans, and often stayed up long hours into hours of the night. Ron hadn’t let it bother him too much, mostly because his friends were supportive and helped him out when he needed space away from his room and his floor in Gryffindor Tower. Also he knew confronting someone like Creevey would probably not do very much in the long run - maybe that was the easy way out, but Ron didn’t really care. He hoped this year would be different, Draco seemed like a pretty down to Earth guy, even with a (still unconfirmed) butler trailing after him. 

Ron checked his phone after depositing the two boxes he was carrying onto the floor near Draco’s unmade bed. The long string of messages filled him up with right-ness and warmth. He smiled as he read them, sitting on the couch in the common area of the dorm.

> [from KnowItAll 2:03] Harry just found me and we’re on the way over. :) 
> 
> [from Scarface 2:03] found herm and wer coming 
> 
> [from Scarface 2:03] she brought her stupid cat again this year
> 
> [from Scarface 2:04] it scratched me when i went over to say hi can you believe that
> 
> [from Scarface 204] ras arent allowed pets so mom had to take hedwig home :(
> 
> [from Scarface 2:04] hows the new guy? better than creevs i hope
> 
> [from KnowItAll 2:04] Ron tell Harry that he doesn’t have to text you because we’re going to see you in like TWO minutes. You two can not be this codependent istg
> 
> [from Scarface 2:05] hermy says to stop txting cuz well see u soon
> 
> [from Scarface 2:05] ttfn
> 
> [from Krumcake 2:06] Saw Hermione and Harry walking to you. Just got on campus. Gonna unpack and then come over Hope your moving in went well. <3 

Ron called over to Draco who had begun to unpack his stuff, “I have a few friends coming over to say. I hope that’s ok.” 

“Yeah sure. They won’t think I’m rude if I’m still unpacking when they’re here, right?” Draco asked and Ron thought he looked rather nervous, but in an ok kind of way.

“‘Course not. They won’t mind at all,” he answered with a smile, wanting to reassure his roommate.

Draco who turned back to his suitcases said, “Cool.” Ron texted his friends back, putting the ringer on silent so he didn’t annoy his new acquaintance as he typed.

> [to Scarface, KnowItAll 2:10] lol ill see you guys soon. txt me when you get here
> 
> [to Krumcake 2:12] yeah come over when you want. it was pretty easy moving in and mom left me trix yogurt can you believe that? ill give you one if you want :) the new roommate seems nice but quiet probs wont be as bad as last year. missed seeing your face - come over soon pretty please with a [cherry emoji] on top
> 
> [to Krumcake 2:12] also i got you a ~present~ come over soon so i can give it to you 
> 
> [from Scarface 2:14] Ron
> 
> [from Scarface 2:14] Ron Ron
> 
> [from Scarface 2:14] Ronald
> 
> [from Scarface 2:14] wer here let us in 
> 
> [to Scarface 2:14] kk on the way

Ron sent another text to Krum as he walked out of the dorm-room after he told Draco he was going to go let his friends in. Draco waved him off, distractedly, focused on the array of posters Ron saw that he had lay out on his bed through the open door to his room. Walking down the hallway and getting into the elevator seemed to take forever. He tapped his foot impatiently on the thinly carpeted floor, waiting for the double doors to open and let him on the ground floor of the building. He barely had one foot through the silver moving doors before he was ambushed by two of his favorite people in the whole world.

Harry and Hermione all but tackled him back into the elevator, hugging him with such enthusiasm that he felt his body press against the back wall. Hermione’s hair somehow managed to make its way into his mouth, but Ron didn’t mind. There was some squealing and jumping before the three of them detached themselves from each other so that Ron could press the (3) button and send them up to his floor. Harry kept his right arm around Ron’s shoulders while Hermione held onto his waist from the left side. 

Ron looked at his two friends, his head moving from left to right, “I missed you guys - I mean, you both. I’ve been trying to get into the habit of not using gendered language,” he said all in a rush and they beamed back at him, “but you know, it’s kinda tough.” And they nodded sagely back. The three of them stood in companionable silence as they watched the numbers move from (2) to (3) “Well aren’t you going to say anything?” Ron asked, as the elevator doors slid open again. 

“I’m just so happy to see you,” Hermione said animatedly, retracting her arm from his body and using her hands to articulate her works as she talked. “We saw Krum on the way to Hufflepuff Hall when we were leaving Gryffindor, he said he was going to stop by later. I heard he as rooming with Cedric again from Parvati, that’s so nice!” Parvati was Hermione’s roommate. They had been suitemates the year before, living separately, Hermione with Lavender and Parvati with Eloise Midgen (who none of them knew very well, even after eight months of sharing the same space), but Lavander had made plans to room off campus this year with her boyfriend (who none of them had met yet), so Hermione and Parvati paired up on their own. Ron nodded in agreement to Hermione and opened the door to his shared dorm.

“Yeah, they applied for a room together at the end of last semester,” Ron replied as he and his two friends entered the common area, “I mean you know we talked about me and him moving in together, but I think it’s better this way.” 

Harry and Hermione moved to sit on the couch which wasn’t a very big or comfy one so Ron went to his room and pulled out one of the folding chairs his dad left him. He sat down on the other side of the coffee table. He was about to ask the two about their summers when Draco emerged from his room.

***

Draco heard the three people coming down the hall moments before Ron even opened the door. He finished putting one of his posters on the wall before getting down from his bed so he could leave his room and meet Ron’s friends. Ron seemed nice enough. He had been helpful with moving Draco’s things from the car and made sure he was okay with bringing strangers into their shared living space. Theo hadn’t been like that, he rarely said a word to Draco other than a random ‘hello’ every once in awhile. He hadn’t been all that messy but some of his things managed to get into weird places in their dorm - Draco was pretty sure that he still had a few of Theo’s shirts somewhere in his closet, just by accident. Like Draco had told Ms. McGonagall, his last roommate had been fine, not good or bad really. But the fact that Theo would put a sock on the door handle rather than just telling Draco he was going to have someone over was rather annoying.

When Ron said he had friends coming over, Draco hadn’t entertained the idea that he would recognize any of them, but the moment he stepped out of his room to say hello, his eyes landed on the curly haired boy - Harry - who had helped him out at the administration building. 

“Oh, hi, Harry, right?” He said a little louder than he meant to, and his face felt a rush of heat. He realized that he hadn’t acknowledged his roommate or the girl sitting on the couch next to Harry. 

Before he could say anything else though, Harry said, “Yeah, um, and you’re Draco. Nice to see you again, man!” 

“Wait, you two know each other?” Ron asked, looking between the two men. Draco stepped forward towards the sitting friends, “cool.”

“Well it’s a small school. I’m Hermione by the way and I use she/her pronouns, what are yours?” Hermione said, raising her hand so that Draco could shake it, “Why don’t you sit with come sit with us?” 

“Yeah good idea,” Ron said, “and then we can all get to know each other.” He bounced up from his chair and brought a second one over from his room. He unfolded it before handing it over to Draco and sat back down. “So these are my friends, but you already know Harry I guess.”

“Yeah. And, um he/him pronouns for me,” Draco said quickly, making sure that he answered the question. She nodded to him.

“I helped Draco out with some stuff when he visited McGoogly earlier this summer,” Harry grinned and Hermione laughed a little at the name. Draco offered a small smile back, glad that Harry didn’t mention how he had needed help signing up for classes, he didn’t want to seem incompetent to these people he barely knew. 

Since Draco didn’t add anything to what Harry said, there was a beat of silence before Ron spoke up, “nice, that’s cool. So you’re a… sophomore?” Draco shifted a little at the question, feeling his insides twist at the question.

“Um well, actually I think I’m still technically a freshman,” he somehow managed to choke out conversationally, “I did a semester here two years ago, but then I took some time of.” 

“The three of us are sophomores,” said Hermione, “but I’m the only one with a declared major. Do you have a major?” Ron and Harry both rolled their eyes at her, but in a loving kind of way, Draco noticed. He made a mental note to ask Ron about his friends later.

“I’m interested in history, not sure what concentration though. I haven’t declared anything yet, though, uh, I think I just want to give it time, you know.”

“Oh right, I remember you saying that when we were talking about classes,” Harry exclaimed, “we’re gonna take the same history of sexuality class this semester!” 

Draco smiled over to him, “yeah, I think it’s going to be really interesting.” 

The conversation picked up from there, and Draco participated, feeling small waves of friendliness and acceptance wash over him in the time that passed, unpacked dorm items forgotten. He learned a lot about his roommate and his two friends: the things they had done over the summer, what the previous two semesters had been like for them, what they were studying. It was mildly surprising to Draco that they showed interest in what he said so soon after meeting him. In the past, it seemed like people had to warm up to him in a way before they seemed interested in him as more than just a classmate. Having a roommate like Theo, who he had barely associated with probably had something to do with it, because there wasn’t a group of friends he could insert himself into, like there was this time. 

At some point, Ron wandered out of the dorm to let his boyfriend in the building. Draco was confident the two of them had been texting consistently since Draco had arrived. He mentioned that to Harry and Hermione in Ron’s absence, in a joking way, and they smiled almost identical knowing smiles at him.

Hermione explained quickly, “They’re pretty inseparable, but they’re cute. Krum’s a nice guy and you’ll probably see him a lot.” Harry nodded along with her words as the door opened and Ron came in, dragging a beautiful, very athletic looking man in by the hand. Draco would have assumed he was one of those douche jock types if he had seen him on campus, but now that he knew his friends a little better, he wasn’t really sure what to assume at all. He watched as Harry and Hermione jumped off the couch and squish Krum into a hug. It was an endearing sight especially when he noticed that Ron continued to hold one of Krum’s hands while the other was occupied with hugging Harry and Hermione back. When they let go, Krum looked around and noticed Draco. They smiled at each other politely as everyone moved back into their seats, Krum sat on the floor at Ron’s feet. 

“So you’re the new roommate. I’m the boyfriend,” Krum introduced himself, “my first name isn’t actually Krum, if you were wondering, it’s Victor, but nobody calls me that. He/him pronouns, by the way.”

“I’m Draco and I also use he/him,” Draco said, “it’s nice to meet you.” He looked around out the four people in the room, “it’s nice to meet all of you, honestly. It’ll be nice to start the semester knowing some people.” Especially people who didn’t seem like assholes and were surprisingly (to Draco at least) somewhat gender inclusive. He hadn’t ever shared his pgps outside of a classroom environment, admittedly only one class, and it was interesting to see it normalized to the degree of everyday conversation. 

“We’re happy to know you,” Hermione said kindly, “and you can meet a few more of our friends if you come with us to dinner. You game?”

“Okay, yeah, that would be nice,” Draco replied, “thank you.”

“Give us a second,” Ron said standing up and looking down at his boyfriend, “I have a present for you, remember?” Krum nodded and pushed himself off the floor. The two of them walked to Ron’s room and shut the door behind them. Draco got up as well to get his phone and wallet from where he left them on his desk. He looked over at the unmade bed with posters laying on top of it and the boxes scattered around his room. He sighed as he realized he probably wouldn’t have the energy to deal with all of it that night and resolved to have it all unpacked by tomorrow evening, even if he wanted to spend time with these new people.

Going to dinner with them was strange and nice for Draco. He had thought about getting a sweater before they left, but hadn’t wanted to riffle through his suitcases in order to find one he wanted to wear. The Great Hall was warm when they walked in, thankfully, and they went directly to the lines of people waiting to get food, Ron reassured Draco that they would get a table once every had their food. At first the amount of options was overwhelming and Draco found himself missing the food that Mr. Dobby brought him that he hadn’t been required to think about. But the people who worked serving the food were pleasant enough and Draco was able to find the salad bar hidden behind the various buffet tables. Draco filled up two plates easily with chicken and rice and an assortment of vegetables before he started trying to find the people he came in with. He walked slowly through the different sections of seating, checking tables and couch clusters to find a familiar face. He nervously twisted his head left and right, before he finally saw Ron and Krum sitting at a circular table with an arrangement of empty chairs. When they spotted him as well, Ron waved him over. 

“Find everything alright?” Ron asked as Draco laid his plates on the table in front of a chair two away from Krum. 

“Yeah, too many options though,” Draco answered before realizing he hadn’t gotten utensils. He asked the couple where to find the silverware, and then went off in the direction they pointed him in to retrieve them. As he walked back, Harry came up and walked with him. They smiled politely at each other and walked in silence to the table. Harry sat next to Draco, directly across from Ron, and began shoveling food into his mouth. Draco stared at him for moment, before looking down at his own plate and beginning to eat. 

“Potter eats like a pig,” Krum said, acknowledging Draco’s reaction. 

Ron laughed and added, “we’ve tried to train him better, but you know… old dogs, new tricks, not a great match.” Harry scowled at his two friend, and swallowed loudly.

“You eat like this too, you idiot, you just restrain yourself when your boyfriend is around,” He bit back, smirking at his friend, “‘specially when we order in Chinese food.”

“Well at least I have manners when I want to, you’re just disgusting,” Ron said.

“You two are ridiculous,” Krum said before reaching over to Ron and kissing him lightly on the cheek. “They’re always like this, Draco.”

“What have they done this time?” Hermione’s voice surprised Draco, he hadn’t realized she can come over to the table. She sat down on Harry’s other side. “We haven’t scared you away already have we?”

“No, we were just discussing Harry’s caveman-like qualities,” Draco reassured her

She laughed and then said, “Blaise and Luna are gonna join us. I saw them come in. They’re just gonna get some food and then head over.”

“Cool,” Ron said and Harry nodded, his cheeks full to bursting and looking a bit like a chipmunk to Draco. 

“He didn’t use to be like this, you know,” Hermione said pointedly to Draco, “Harry learned his bad habits from the red-haired devil sitting across from you, or at least that’s what his mom says. Don’t let Ron’s lack of barbaricness now convince you otherwise.” Harry began nodding again enthusiastically and Hermione told him to swallow his food before he choked himself. Draco picked at his food, letting their conversation wash over him in a comforting way. He was a bit dazed at how accepting of him they were already, but it didn’t feel wrong, just new and different. 

Two people named Blaise and Luna joined their table quickly, Luna sitting between Draco and Krum, Blaise between Hermione and Ron. There weren’t any more empty chairs and everyone sat evenly spaces, with the exception of Ron and Krum who never seemed to be able to extract themselves from each other. Draco noticed they even were sharing the same three plates and reached over each other to get to them. 

Blaise and Luna introduced themselves. Blaise sent him a beautiful grin from across the table and Draco knew instantly that he wanted to be friends with the man. Luna, next to him, spoke in soft, peaceful tones, greeting him with large blue eyes and a softer smile. She reminded Draco of stories of nymphs or mermaids in old mythology, ethereal and bright, with deep seated power.

“So Draco,” Blaise called from across the table, effectively cutting into the other conversations that were happening, “tell us what classes you’re taking. I wanna see if we have anything together.” Draco blushed slightly under the attention, but managed to give an answer without embarrassing himself.

“Um, well, I have a history of sexuality class, with Harry -” Harry grinned brightly at the mention, and Draco smiled back “- and I’m taking another history class, it’s an American one, covering the 1940s until now. Oh, and an intro to astronomy class, for the science requirement, but I’m kind of excited about it. Also Statistics, because math. Um, I enrolled in a creative writing and poetry class, but I might drop it if five classes is too much…” Blaise smirked a bit and leaned forward.

“I already took Stat, but I can help tutor you if you want,” he said, “I was really good at it.” Draco was sure Blaise was good at a lot of things, but elected not to say as much as he watched the darker man lean back into his seat. 

“Show-off,” Ron muttered over a forkful of sweet potato pie and Blaise laughed at him.

“You just didn’t do well because you didn’t ask for help. It was easy, really.”

“I don’t know,” Draco said, “I’m terrible at math, I’m probably going to need all the help I can get.”

“I can help you too,” Hermione offered, “I’m pretty decent at these kinds of things, too.” She said this in a way that implied she was good at school in general not just statistics, the type of person who never got grades lower than a B. 

“Thanks,” Draco said, but Blaise shook his head at him, and pointed at himself as if to so ‘I’m better than she is, talk to me instead’ but also in a way that was a lot more suggestive of other things. Draco smiled in acknowledgement and glanced over to Luna who was daintily demolishing a very random assortment of food - chicken, sliced nectarine, and two slices of bright orange American Cheese to name a few. 

She grinned at him when she noticed him looking and said, “I know someone else who’s taking an astronomy class. Maybe you’ll be in the same one.”

“Yeah,” Hermione interjected, “Parvati’s twin, Padma. She’s really looking forward to it.”

“And Lavender, too,” Luna added.

“Oh, I didn’t know that! I guess I haven’t talked to her in a while. That’s nice.”

Harry, who had long since finished his food, listening in on the conversations happening around him said “oh, gross, cut it out, you two,” suddenly, catching Draco’s attention. Harry was looking over at Ron and Krum who were kind of just staring at each other with hearts in their eyes. Draco thought it was kind of cute actually. Ron stuck his tongue out playfully at Harry and moved to sit back in his own seat. Draco saw that Krum slipped an arm around Ron’s shoulders, even as he did shifted away. 

Blaise said, “They’re always like that,” to Draco. But before he could respond Hermione laughed and said, “He knows, we warned him already.” 

Later, when the conversation split again and everyone was talking to the people next to them, Draco turned to Hermione who was starting to eat her dessert, having to talk around Harry who was between them, and asked, “so do you guys know each other from before college? because it seems like you all know each other really well.” She seemed like a person who would answer his question honestly and without judgement, so he figured she would be the best person to ask. Hermione hummed around a spoonful of icecream cake.

“Well, Harry and Ron grew up together - their families have been pretty close for a long time - Harry knows all of Ron’s siblings really well and they spend the holidays together sometimes.” Harry nodded enthusiastically at the mention, but didn’t bother to add anything, “I met them in high school, because I moved towns, and they were my first friends. Blaise and Luna, I think they might have known each other before last year, but I’m not really sure - they were already friends when we met them, which was through Parvati who’s my roommate.” Hermione shrugged and moved to fill her spoon up once more, “and Blaise and Luna knew Krum, which was how Ron met him.”

“Oh,” Draco said, not knowing what else to say, “that’s cool that you got to go to university with people you already knew.” Hermione smiled and finished her cake, using her finger to make sure she got all of the icecream and crumbs.

“Yeah, I mean I guess people don’t usually get to keep their best friends when they go away to college. We actually didn’t plan it out - well in a way I guess you could say we did but, it kind of just happened, you know. Do you know anyone here?”

“I met some people when I was here the first time, mostly just people in my classes and a few who lived on the same floor as me in the Slytherin dorms, I’m sure some of them are still around, I didn’t stay in contact with anyone though.” Draco looked down at his plates, which still had food on them even though his stomach felt uncomfortably full. He had been hungry coming in but once he was sitting down and listening to everyone and getting caught up in the new exciting people, his appetite seemed to have slipped away. “I don’t really mind though, none of them were all that nice or interesting, they were just people I met along the way, I guess. I think it might be different this year, or at least I hope it will be,” Draco offered Hermione a weak smile just as Ron stood up and collected a few of the empty plates around the table. Draco picked up his own, feeling a bit guilty for the leftover food, and followed him to the corner in back of the dining area where people dropped off their plates, utensils, and trash. 

On their way over, Ron asked, “So what do you think?”

“Everyone seems really nice,” Draco responded, placing the dishes in the dish-rack and the utensils into the tub containing soap, water, and other silverware.

Ron looked rather proud at Draco’s words, “yeah, they’re a pretty good group of people, if I do say so myself.”

They walk back to the road table where everyone else was getting out of their seats and preparing to leave. Ron said to Draco as they made their way out, “I’m sure you’ll fit right in,” and beamed up at him, in such a hopeful and happy way that Draco grinned back too.

***

Ron closed his door behind him and turned to look at his boyfriend who made himself comfortable on the neatly made bed. Krum sat with his back to the wall, holding one of Ron’s pillows in his lap and his fingers tapped a beat as he watched the redhead shuffle around his room, changing into clothes that were more comfortable. He left to go brush his teeth and Krum took a few moments to look around the small space. He hadn’t gotten the chance when Ron had dragged him in earlier that day to give him his present which was really just a very enthusiastic kiss, one of the trix yogurt cups, and knitted hat made by his mom. They ate it quickly, using their fingers and tongues instead of spoons, because they didn’t want to keep their friends waiting too long. It was a wonderful, sweet and silly reunion and Krum loved it. He had left the hat on Ron’s desk to retrieve after dinner.

Most of the decorations that Ron put up were ones that Krum had seen before in the room he had last year at Gryffindor Tower, but there were a few new ones. He also had a new bedside table - not the makeshift stack of crates as a semblance of shelves that Harry made for him when they were in high school - but a real table with two wooden drawers. On the top of the bedside table, along with the framed pictures that Ron usually placed upon it, there was a new photo. It was of the two of them, sitting close, bundled in the scarves and hats, smiling at each other. Hermione had taken the photo when they weren’t looking because they were too captivated by each other to notice her or the Chudley Cannons ice hockey game they were there to watch. Krum felt a warmth spread through him, as he looked at the framed photograph. He didn’t even know that Ron had it or had taken the time to print and frame it. Looking at the other photos - one of Ron’s entire immediate family, one of Hermione, Harry, and him, and one of the Weasley family’s dogs, Hermes, who died two years ago, and Pig, who was still just a puppy - Krum realized that Ron counted him as part of his family. 

Krum looked up sharply as Ron came back into the room and his face must not have looked normal because Ron set his bathroom kit down hastily on his desk and climbed onto the bed. Ron moved into Krum’s space, took the pillow out of his hands and replaced it with his own. They sat facing each other for a moment before Krum rushed forward, pecked Ron on the lips, and leaned back against the wall to watch Ron’s reaction. Ron didn’t skip a beat. He unfolded his legs and crawled into Krum’s lap, pulling Krum forward so he could wrap his arms around his neck. Krum shifted so that Ron’s legs could wrap around his waist as well. 

It didn’t take long for them to slot their mouths together and lend themselves over to the warmth and familiarity of their bodies. One of Ron’s hands held that back of Krum’s head, fingers sinking into his hair. They barely came up for air.

Krum let his own hands pull Ron’s body closer as they kissed, rubbing up and down his back until his fingers caught on the hem of his shirt, causing it to ride up. His hands slipped under it and began to pull it up. Ron leaned back, separating their mouths, which were now a little redder and a little more swollen then they had been, so that he could take the shirt off himself. But before Krum could reel Ron back in and trace the lines of his body, over the bumps of his spine and seams of his binder and the small moles that littered his back, Ron placed a stalling finger on his lips.

“Hey,” he said softly, and Krum got lost for a moment in his wide clear blue eyes as the finger fell away.

“Hi,” he whispered back. Ron moved back into his space and pressed his forehead to Krum’s.

“I missed you so much,” Ron’s words were breathy, but warm against Krum’s face, “I can’t keep my fucking hands off you. Ugh, we were kinda gross in front of everyone.” Ron’s freckled face flushed and Krum knew his ears were turning red at the tips. He moved his face so that he could kiss Ron again, pressed their lips firmly together and then pulled back so they could actually see each other.

“Yeah, but that’s okay,” Krum said, “I want everyone to know how much I love you, even if we gross ‘em out a bit. They don’t really mind, though. Well I don’t know about your new roommate, but everyone else is -” 

“-used it it, yeah I know, that’s what they’ve been telling him all night.” They both laughed a bit at that. “I’m sure he’s fine with it, I mean, I don’t know, but when I asked just now it didn’t seem like he minded all that much.”

“He seems like a nice guy, all around, a bit anxious maybe.” Ron nodded at that.

“Kinda adorable, really. Like in a shy, cute kinda way. He had a butler though, or at least I think the guy helping him move his stuff was some kind of butler, so he’s probably super rich. But he didn’t seem too snobby so,” Ron trailed off and shrugged his shoulders. Krum knew money was sometimes hard for Ron and his family. With the amount of siblings he had, it wasn’t hard to guess the financial strains they were under, especially when Ron wasn’t the only one in college.

“Well I guess we’ll just have to see.” Krum responded distractedly. His train of thought regarding family reminded him of the picture on Ron’s bedside table. He felt the warmth wash over his body once again - not that he was cold or anything to begin with. He moved his hands so they were resting on Ron’s hips. “I just wanted to say, though - on a different note - I really like that picture of us and that you put it on your bedside table. I get that it means a lot and I just, it makes me happy, and I love you a lot.” It was Krum’s turn to blush, thought he saw the happiness in Ron’s eyes as they flicked from the table back to Krum’s face.

“I love you too,” Ron said and smiled. They sat quietly, listening to the sound of their own breathing, holding each other. The mood in the air shifted gradually until Ron instructed Krum to take off his shirt. He brought his hands up to Krum’s neck again, his left thumb pressed lightly on his Adam’s apple. Then his hands slipped down to slide down his chest, his fingers feeling the lines of his muscles and pressing into them a bit. “You know,” Ron interjected as his right hand moved towards Krum’s left nipple. His index finger traced circles around the hardening flesh, “the nice thing about this new roommate arrangement…” Ron’s left hand moved to trace the skin right above the top of Krum’s pants. Krum kissed the next words out of Ron’s mouth, before he could say the things they were both thinking, but it didn’t last long. They were both impatient with want, having been teasing each other for the better part of the afternoon. They separated so they could remove the rest of their clothing without bumping into each other. After he was completely naked, Krum sat on the side of the bed and reached into the top drawer of the bedside table, hoping to find condoms, lube, and Ron’s vibrator, and was rewarded by finding exactly what he wanted, and something else. 

Krum pulled a harness and a blue dildo and looked at them closely. Ron, now also mostly naked, noticed what Krum was doing and moved to sit next to him close enough for their thighs to press together.

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want, but we talked about this kinda thing a little at the end of last semester, so I thought I get one just in case, you know, just to see. I’ve tried it on a few times, to see what it was like, with a vibrator in me.” Ron’s words came out in a rush, but not a nervous one which Krum was relieved to note.

“Did you like it?” He asked, wanting to know how Ron felt before he shared his own feelings. If Ron wanted to know, though, what Krum thought of getting fucked with the toys he was holding, all he had to do was look down Krum’s lap, where his cock had begun to harden just from the very idea.

“Well, I always like the vibrator,” Ron said, grinning a bit at that. “I don’t think I’ll know though for real until we try it out - if you want, obviously.”

“I definitely wanna try this, but not tonight, if that’s ok? I want to talk it through with you more, like we’ve done with everything else.”

“Yeah, of course. I don’t really wanna try something new right now anyway,” Ron said and then moved back onto the bed fully, pulling at Krum’s arm as he did, “just wanna keep it on the table.”

Krum kissed Ron’s belly button and looked up at him, “oh, yeah, we are definitely keeping this on the table.” He shifted back, though, to place the strap-on into the drawer and take out a condom and the lube. Krum placed the items in reaching distance on the bed and then delicately climbed on top of Ron, not wanting to squish him. He leaned down to claim his mouth in another kiss, but he didn’t stay there long. He kissed his way down Ron’s body, mapping his progress pressing little licks and bites into his skin wherever he could reach. Ron hadn’t taken off his binder, so Krum knew to leave that area alone this time. He hoped that Ron would be ok with taking it off later though when they went to sleep - Ron had been wearing it at least all afternoon and it would probably not be good for him to wear it for much longer. He nipped at Ron’s navel and the redhead let out a small sound. Ron moved his hand from where it had been resting on the bed towards Krum’s head and Krum turned so he could kiss it lightly before returning to Ron’s abdomen.

They were in an odd position on the bed, with Ron lying down fully on it a bit sideways, the pillows and blankets mostly still in place, and Krum somehow half on the bed, half kneeling on the floor as he continued his descent. He smiled into Ron’s hip as he noticed this and then pushed his legs straighter so he could get back on the bed. Krum moved between Ron’s legs, folding his own under him, and placed each of his hands on one of Ron’s hips. He trailed his fingers along the skin, along the tops of Ron’s legs, moving closer and closer to the warm, soon-to-be-if-not-already wet v between them. He flicked his eyes up to meet Ron’s and sent him a silent question, making sure it was ok for him to proceed.

Ron gave him a small nod, his light blue eyes bright with desire, and Krum tugged the fabric of his boxer-briefs down his legs and off, tossing it lightly towards Ron’s hamper. He then brought trailed his hands up Ron’s legs, until he got back to his hipbones and leaned forward to place a kiss on each. With an affirming - albeit muffled - sound from Ron, Krum let his hands move down once more, this time working their way towards Ron’s now naked pubic area, through the course red hair there to the soft folds below. He circled the tip of his index finger around Ron’s elongated clit and was rewarded with a small noise of pleasure. 

“Don’t - um, don’t use your mouth tonight, though, love, just your fingers okay?”

Krum leaned down a placed a dry kiss on Ron’s belly button again, “sure, baby.” His hand was now flat against Ron’s center, finger-tips teasingly tapping lightly on the hardening nub. “Is this still ok?”

“Yeah, more than” Ron answered, his voice breathy and dripping with want, “Oh wait!” he said suddenly, sitting up. He twitched a little at the finger pressing into him. Krum pulled it back and rested his hands on the top of his own thighs, giving Ron a questioning look. “I just wanna take the quilt off the bed, I forgot to fold it up earlier. I don’t really want to have sex on a blanket my mom made for me.”

Krum chuckled and then pushed off the bed. Ron scrambled up after him and quickly stripped the top blanket from the bed. He bundled it up and put on in the chair at his desk. Krum pulled back the normal blanket and top sheet to the end of the bed. Ron came up and pulled him into another kiss, moving their bodies back onto the bed. Krum shifted his weight to begin to move down the bed again, but Ron held him close to his body, “just wanna feel you for a bit,” he muttered and nipped at Krum’s jaw. Krum indulged his boyfriend’s request by pressing a little more firmly on his body and peppering his face with kisses. Eventually he asked into Ron’s neck, “is it ok if I finger you a for a bit, it’s just been so long since I’ve made you come.”

“Yeah” he said and Krum wiggled down his body faster than he had the last time. He pressed kisses into Ron’s thighs before placing his hands where he wanted them. As Krum let one of his fingers dip into him, he moved it slowly and gently. His other hand reached for the bottle of lubricant that had slipped onto the floor when they removed the blanket. He uncapped it and took his finger out of Ron’s body so he could coat it in lube. 

To the soft sounds of Ron’s sighs above him, Krum got his boyfriend off. Ending up with three fingers in his cunt and a thumb rubbing at his clit. Krum moved his fingers playfully, rubbing with intent against the walls of Ron’s vagina, taking his time to make sure Ron was open and ready for his cock, ensuring that there would be no pain in this interaction. Though Ron eventually had to a hand over his mouth to muffle any sounds he was making, so as not to bother their neighbor, his body responding enticingly to everything Krum did. It wasn’t until Ron came twice before he asked Krum to grab the condom and told him he was ready. Ron grinned at his boyfriend and shifted in the bed so that he was half sitting up once Krum grabbed the condom with his free hand. Ron brought a finger under Krum’s chin, moving his head so they could look at each other again. Krum let breathed out wetly against Ron’s hand, his eyes and face flushed with desire as he refocused. “Come on, Krumcake, get that cock inside me. Don’t wanna wait any longer.” It didn’t take long for Krum to do exactly what Ron wanted.

***

The sound of a door closing brought Draco back into the conscious world the next morning. He was disoriented for a second, confused by the bed being not as comfy as he was used to and the light that streamed in through the windows he had forgotten to close.

Draco had turned in for the night earlier than he figured he would have if he was normal. On the way back to the dormitories, Draco happily exchanged numbers with Hermione and Blaise and waved goodbye to everyone except for Ron and his boyfriend once they arrived at their hall. He wasn’t all that surprised that Krum followed Ron up to the dorms, but felt awkward about it. He didn’t know either of them very well wasn’t sure how he felt about them doing things in the room next to his. He just hoped he didn’t have to hear it. Upon arriving at their dorm, Draco separated quickly from his two companions and made his way into his room. He saw Ron and Krum head into Ron’s.

He wasn’t expecting Ron to knock on his door a few minutes later, but he did. Ron apologized for not making sure it was ok with Draco before bringing his boyfriend over for the night and told him Krum would leave in a few hours if Draco wanted. “I know we have our own rooms, but we also share the general space, so I just don’t wanna make you feel uncomfortable or anything.” Ron said as he ran a hand through his red hair. Now that Ron had acknowledged Draco’s ownership over the space, Draco felt a lot better about the whole thing. So he thanked Ron for going out of his way to make him feel more welcome and assured him that he didn’t mind all that much that Krum was around. 

He decided to ignore the bags and suitcases in favor of comfort, but elected at the very least to make his bed and unpack a few things that would make everything a bit more comfortable and homey. So when Draco had finally settled in for the night, teeth brushed and body showered, in his bed with his computer a traveling mug full of decaffeinated herbal tea in reaching distance, it didn’t take long for him to sink into his sleepiness and drift away, half listening to the playlist he selected from his computer. Upon waking up, Draco found his computer dark and out of battery sitting precariously on the edge of the bed and the traveling mug half full of cold tea. He assumed the noise that woke him was Ron or Krum using the bathroom and groaned softly to himself when he saw what time it was. Draco slept in later than he meant to, which was strange considering how early he had fallen asleep. He made a mental note for himself to set an alarm for the next three days before class started so he could get in the habit of waking up at a normal time and not at 11 o’clock. 

Draco closed his computer and resolved to charge it when he found the energy to fully wake up. He pulled it more securely onto the bed and lay back down, staring at the white ceiling above him. Draco wasn’t really sure what to do for the next few days, if he was honest with himself. He figured he could watch movies and lay around in bed all day, but that would be boring. None of the people he met the day before had invited him to anything and he didn’t want to text them first, not fearing the rejection, but more the possibility that he wouldn’t get an answer at all. He lazily drifted in and out of awakeness for about an hour, letting his mind wander and his body relax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...and that's chapter 1
> 
> yeah i havent written fanfic in a really long time. let me know what you think?
> 
> [also, i have an on-again-off-again beta, so there might be some mistakes here and there, sorry]


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I just wanted to add a quick reminder that this is literally just self-indulgence. and that I'm a cis, white, queer woman so I don't know everything - but I have been consulting with my trans and nonbinary friends as well as doing research - if I write something that's not ok or offensive, it was an honest mistake that I would love to learn from, so please let me know. also - in the market for a beta, because I am definitely editing this on my own right now

A knock on the door brought Draco out of the comfy, hazy, nothingness his head was filled with to the reality of the day. He jumped a bit at the sharp noise, disrupting the mess of fabric around him, and fumbled his way out. 

“One minute,” he said loudly in the direction of the door as he slipped a shirt on and then proceeded to stumble across the small room to open it. Ron stood in the doorframe, his day clothes and smile making Draco self-conscious of his disorderly appearance. 

“Do you wanna come to lunch with us?” He asked. Draco felt a small jolt of shock rocket through his stomach - he hadn’t been expecting Ron or his friends to go out of their way to include him in their activities. He nodded quickly, despite his surprise.

“Yeah, that would be really nice, but I need to get changed and find my wallet… would you mind waiting?”

“Not at all, Krum’s just getting dressed now, anyway.”

“Okay I’ll be ready in a minute or so,” Draco said as he turned back into his room and closed the door behind him. He riffled through the two drawers with clothes in them to find a pair of jeans and a comfy t-shirt. He didn’t know what the weather would be like, but he figured simple was the way to go and the sky outside look pleasant enough through the window. Draco pulled his converse on his feet over black socks and looked in the mirror to check himself. His hair was a bit of a mess but he didn’t mind. I look normal, he reassured himself before grabbing his wallet, unplugging his phone from the charger, and making his way out into the common area. Ron was already out there, sitting in the middle of the couch and doing something with his phone that Draco figured was texting. The redhead watched as Draco came to sit next to him and smiled politely as he continued to type with this fingers. Krum walked out of Ron’s room after some time, leaned down to give him a kiss, and sat down in one of the unfolded chairs Ron had brought out the night before. Draco watched their exchange, politely trying not to seem like he was paying all that much attention. He ignored the immediate creeping want - not jealousy, but just a want to have that kind of relationship with someone - that tugged at his heart.

“Let’s go somewhere other than the Great Hall,” Krum said, “we ate there yesterday and we should show Draco the other places on campus anyway.” Ron nodded in agreement.

“I know places on campus,” Draco looked over at Krum and reminded the two of them, “I was here for a semester already. But yeah, it would be nice to go somewhere other than the dining hall - it was so different from how I remembered it, so…” Draco shrugged, not sure where he wanted his sentence to end, and then looked down at his hands which he hadn’t noticed were twisted in his lap around his phone until then.

“Cool, I was thinking we could go to Madam Puddifoot’s, I’ve missed it over the summer.” Krum said in response and then after thinking for a moment, “yeah things have changed a bit since last year at least. I think they reorganized the buffet tables and stuff because they added in a second salad bar.” 

Draco looked up to see Ron nod knowingly before informing them that Harry was on the way over from Ravenclaw Tower but Hermione would just meet them there because her dorm in Gryffindor Tower was really close to Madam Puddifoot’s coffee house. Upon hearing this new, the three of them rose from their seated positions and began the descent out of the building. Draco wondered if any of his new friends did anything without each other but was kind of glad for it. It would be easier for him to get to know them in groups rather than individually, if only for the fact that he wouldn’t have to worry so much about carrying a conversation without the support of other people. When they met Harry at the front edge of the courtyard outside the Prefect dormitory complex, he gave Ron an enthusiastic sideways hug and smiled brightly at the other two men. As they walked, Draco and Harry fell into step together, Ron and Krum trailing after them holding hands and talking quietly to each other about the next venue Krum and his band were going to perform at. Harry asked Draco if he had bought his textbooks yet and Draco stopped feeling so unsure of himself. Their conversation could be easy and safe, flutter around Draco in a comforting cloud which boosted his confidence. 

“Not yet. I looked over the textbook list once you helped me chose the classes,” he answered, looking out in front of them, noticing the buildings and people around them, “but I remember what it was like when I was here a while ago, so I figured I would wait until classes start to see what the professors actually want from us.”

Harry nodded, which Draco saw out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah, that makes sense. I’ve ordered all my books already, but that’s just because I can’t afford to wait and have the prices go up. There’s a nice online bookstore that sells textbooks for cheap, so that’s where I get mine. Most of them came in the mail already, but I still have a few on the way.”

“That makes sense. I hadn’t really considered the price of the books before, I forgot how expensive they would be. What’s the site you use?”

“Here,” Harry said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket, “I’ll text you a link.” He clicked around on the screen before realizing, “Wait! I don’t think I have your number? Here, add yourself to my contacts and I’ll forward you the link.” He handed the phone over to Draco with the ‘New Contact’ screen open for Draco to tap away at. 

Draco returned Harry’s phone and thanked him. They walked in silence for a few moments. He realized that he hadn’t really been paying attention to where they were going - he was watching the things around him, but zoned in on the small exchange so much that he was surprised when they turned a corner on the sidewalk and were only a few steps away from the coffeehouse.

The a bell chimed as the four boys stepped through the double doors into Madam Puddifoot’s. There weren’t many people in the building and most of the tables were empty. Ron spotted Hermione sitting off in a corner with a huge coffee mug already in front of her. She smiled and gestured over to the counter, indicating that they should order before joining her, and turned back to the book she was reading. Draco, Ron, and Krum lined up behind the two people waiting to place their own orders and Draco saw a waiter put down a dark green salad bowl next to Hermione’s mug after a minute while Harry darted up to the counter to get two menus for them to look over. 

The woman who took their orders looked familiar to Draco with her bubblegum-pink hair and thrice pierced nose but he couldn’t figure out how. In the end, it was she who recognized him when he stepped up to place his order.

“Malfoy, right?” She asked before he could say anything. He nodded and she smirked. “Oh yeah, I have a great memory. We had a class together my sophomore year.”

“Oh, I was wondering why you looked familiar. But you used to have purple hair, right? That was a good class,” Draco thought back to the ancient mythology class he attended freshman year and added as an afterthought, “Malfoy is my last name by the way, Draco’s my first. What was yours again?”

“Nymphadora, but I go by Tonks. Got tired of purple in the middle of last year. Anyway... what did you want to order?” She seemed pleased that Draco recognized her and he was pretty flattered in return that she remembered him to this degree. He smiled and placed an order of a medium-sized regular coffee and a BLT sandwich with a pickle and chips on the side. After ringing up his order, Tonks took a purple pen out from her apron pocket and wrote her number on his receipt, telling him to “text me, if you want, we could get coffee - maybe not here though - and catch up sometime,” before turning to Harry and asking what he wanted to order.

Draco left his three companions and headed over to sit by Hermione. She folded over the corner of the page she was reading and closed her book, setting it on the table by her still untouched salad. He bid her a good morning and thanked a blond waiter who brought him his coffee almost immediately. He added Tonks’ number into his contacts and noticed a text from an unknown number which he assumed was Harry’s. He added that number as well. He then looked over to Hermione, not wanting to be rude, and asked which book she was reading, Hermione blushed and admitted it was The DaVinci Code,

“Don’t make fun of me, okay?” She pleaded jokingly when he smiled, “I just like ending the summer with stupid, easy to read mysteries with ridiculous plot holes and conspiracy theories! It makes it easier to start reading all the academic stuff we’ll get assigned soon enough.”

“Makes sense. How many times have you read that one?”

“At least five times probably,” Hermione conceded and hid her red face behind her hands in mock defeat as Draco laughed again.

“It’s ok, I do that too, or at least I try to,” he assured her, paused for a moment and said pointedly, “but with better books.” She rolled her eyes and swatted him playfully on the shoulder.

Harry dropped into a chair suddenly next to Draco, causing him to flinch away from the sudden movement. 

“Reading David Brown again, ‘Mione? Lame.”

“It’s Dan Brown, actually, and you really shouldn't be judging _me_. I know for a fact that you’ve read that Stephanie Meyers book at least a dozen time, so don’t even talk.” 

Harry just smirked at her and crossed his hands over his chest, “I’d take the Host over any Dan Brown book any day.” 

They (happily) glared at each other and Draco excused himself to add milk and sugar to his coffee from a small counter on the other side of the building. By the time he made it back, Ron and Krum had just sat down, Ron noticing the looks of indignation on his two best friends faces.

“What are we fighting about this time?” he asked joyfully.

Hermione answered “nothing” but Harry said “badly written books.” Ron grinned brightly at the two of them. There was a beat of silence before the same blond waiter brought Ron, Harry, and Krum mugs full of coffee, orange juice, and more coffee respectively, all balanced on a black plastic tray. They thanked him after he assured them their food would be coming soon. 

“You don’t have to wait for us, you know” Ron gestured to Hermione’s salad.

“No that’s ok, I wanted to wait for you guys - I mean folks - anyway and besides, it’s not like it matters if it gets cold or anything,” she said. It turned out that they didn’t have to wait very long for their food and a few minutes later, they all began to eat. Draco hungrily bit into his sandwich, glad to be filling his body with its first meal of the day. From the corner of his eye, Draco noticed that Harry was making short work of his own food, scarfing it down as if it were the last meal he would ever eat, and wondered to himself if maybe the behavior was exacerbated not just by being friends with another messy eater, but something else as well. He personally took a painfully long time to eat even a small amount of food when he was in public, just like his parents taught him to be: polite, neat, and never a completely empty plate. He never much minded, but he quietly speculated over his BLT about what his eating habits would have been like had he been raised in a different environment, without the pressure of being the sole heir of a well-respected family. 

Having lost himself in his thoughts, Draco started slightly when he heard a phone ring loudly, cutting through the quietness of the coffee shop. Krum smiled apologetically as he stood to answer his phone and walk out of the building. 

“It’s either Clara or Aidan about music stuff or Cedric about dorm stuff,” Ron supplied needlessly, though Draco was quietly grateful for it. They all nodded - Draco doing so because everyone else did.

Hermione asked, “Do they have another gig lined up?”

“Krum told me on the way here. I think it’s a place called Hog’s Head or something. He said it seemed kind of sketchy but they’ve been having trouble getting booked at the Leaky Cauldron this whole summer.” Ron answered. “I think something happened between Clara and the owner, but Krum didn’t go into details. It would be awesome if we went to see ‘em - it’s been ages.”

Harry took pity on the look of mild confusion on Draco’s face and explained to him that Clara Ivanova and Aidan Lynch were two members of Krum’s band. They had an on-and-off drummer, Tony Silva, but they could never really count on him. They had been working together for about three years now and had a small following. “They’re band’s kinda weird. Because we know Krum to be mostly a fluffball, but when he’s on stage he looks grouchy and mean and his eyebrows scrunch up into a unibrow. And Clara’s like that too. She kind of reminds me of Ginny - Ron’s sister- because of the red hair and she’s a really nice person but when she’s up on stage, she looks like she could reach her hand into your chest, tear out your heart, and eat it, just for the fun of it. Aidan’s kinda chill all the time though, but that’s mostly just because he’s a stoner.” Harry continued, “Band’s called Quidditch International, it was supposed to be a joke, but no one understands it except for them, I think even Ron doesn’t know what it means.”

“What kind of music do they play?”

“It’s kind of punk but also kind of cute, but in an angry way? You should just ask Krum honestly, I just like to listen to them, but I’m not really a music person. But you should come see them play! Then you can hear them for yourself.” 

Hermione and Ron who had each been paying attention but eating rather than talking, nodded enthusiastically at the invitation.

“Oh, okay, yeah that would be really nice. Are you sure though? I mean you just met me, right?” Harry seemed a little taken aback by Draco’s response, as if he hadn’t realized that he didn’t know him very well, which confused Draco mostly because Harry had just spent the last few minutes explaining his friends to him. 

Hermione's eyes turned warm when she looked at him and answered, “It’d be nice and we can all get to know each other better, just like we are now. Unless you don’t want to, we obviously don’t want to drag you to anything you don’t wanna go to, but you’re new and you’re Ron’s roommate and we like you so far, so don’t worry okay?” 

Draco felt bad about shifting the mood in this way and uncomfortable under the meaningful words that Hermione said. He realized that maybe she knew how he felt a little, her smile and eyes empathetic. The whole atmosphere, awkward but tender, was thankfully shattered when Krum came through the coffee shop doors and reseated himself at the table. 

“Cedric said he’s finally completely unpacked and starving, so he’s on his way here,” he looked over at Draco and informed him that Cedric was his roommate and a soccer player. They had mostly finished eating and were on seconds of drinks by the time Cedric ordered and sat down with them, squeezing between Krum and Harry. Draco introduced himself and Cedric politely did so as well before turning his attention down his own meal, eating it a pace that made it seem like he was trying to catch up to everyone else. Hermione and Harry had gotten back into arguing over books again sometime during all of this and Draco elected to simply sip his coffee and listen.

***

To say that Hermione Granger was intrigued by Ron’s new roommate would be an understatement. His last name rang a distant bell in her mind but she couldn’t place it. Draco was quiet and underconfident. She remembered feeling like that when she first started being friends with Harry and Ron all those years ago. It was rather overwhelming to go from knowing no one to having two best friends who were kind and brave and actually interested in her. So the looks of confusion and happiness that flashed across Draco’s face weren’t a surprise at all, though it was strange to see the emotions that she was so familiar with mirrored by someone else. Hermione kept a half-eye on Draco as she discussed the books she read over the summer, hopeful that he would realize he could fit in just as much as she did soon enough. Not that she knew him very well yet, but he seemed like a good person, if a bit nervous and withdrawn.

A vibration for the phone in her pocket interrupted her train of thought and brought her out of her conversation. She smiled apologetically at Harry who shrugged before retrieving it and looking at the screen.

> [from PP 2:13] the minifridge’s making weird sounds and I’m going to call maintenance - jsyk. Will update you later

“Parvati said there’s something weird with the minifridge we ordered,” Hermione informed Harry while texting Parvati back, “how’s your RA dorm by the way? You haven’t said anything about it.” 

> [to PP 2:14] Thanks for letting me know! I’ll be back after dinner probably, if you want to watch another episode of Shameless.

“It’s nice and actually pretty similar to Ron and Draco’s set up, except that it’s only one single room instead of two. The freshmen on the floor seem nice enough I guess, maybe a bit bookish - but I’m used to that.” Harry sent her a knowing smile. “And their mostly cute and terrified!”

“You’re only a year older than them!”

“Yeah, well I can still think they’re adorable. I’m a year older and much wiser.” He nodded sagely, lifting his eyebrows in an attempt to make a smart-person-face.

“Oh yeah, sure” Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes. She checked her phone again when Parvati answered and noticed that Blaise had also sent her a message.

> [from PP 2:17] i’m out with padma, lavender, and her boyfriend for dinner, not sure what the plans are after that, but ill let you know.
> 
> [from BZ 2:17] anyone doing anything? just woke up and im bored.
> 
> [to PP 2:17] Cool.

“Blaise wants to know if we’re doing anything,” Hermione shared with the whole group.

“Yeah,” Ron said, looking up from his own phone, “he texted me too. Are we doing anything? I mean, none of us really made plans.” 

“Well I have to finish unpacking,” Draco spoke up, the corners of his mouth turning down a bit, “so I’m just going to head back to Prefect once I finish my coffee.”

“Oh, we could all go back with you!” Harry said, “I mean if Ron sets up his TV, then we could watch something and make popcorn and Blasie can come over,” Harry offered Draco and Ron’s space to the group without asking how they felt about it, but it didn’t seem like either of them minded. Draco even looked a bit hopeful if Hermione was to be honest.

“Yeah that would be nice! Mom left me a few boxes of microwave popcorn and we could stop by Honeydukes on the way back to get snacks,” Ron said and then looked over at Draco, “if you’re okay with that, of course.”

“It’s okay with me,” Draco assured him.

“Then it’s settled,” Krum said and finished his drink with dramatic finality, roughly putting it back onto the table and grinning over at his boyfriend. “I can make the stop to Honeydukes, if you all want to go straight to the dorm to set up.” Everyone nodded and Cedric offered to accompany him. Ron texted Blaise back while Hermione brought a stack of dishes over to the counter and Harry followed her, juggling mugs and utensils a little more precariously. Tonks thanked them and started to clear the dirty dishes away. 

As they all started to make their way over to the door to leave, Hermione watched as Draco went and said goodbye to Tonks himself. She was surprised to see that he seemed more sure of himself around her, she hadn’t realized that they knew each other. Not that she knew Tonks at all really. Hermione noticed that Harry was observing their interaction as well. Ron and Krum shared a quick hug and kiss before their two groups split up outside Madam Puddifoot’s.

The walk to the dorms was pleasant. With Krum and Cedric gone, Ron engaged more with her and the two other boys, keeping a flow of conversation between them easy and constant. Ron managed to get Draco to open up more about himself. They learned that Draco’s parents had sent him to a private high school in New York with a ridiculously fancy French name, Baeuxbaton, that sounded really impressive. Hermione figured this meant that he came from money and perhaps the reason his name sounded familiar was because his family had some kind of social standing that afforded them fame. He didn’t talk about them specifically or what they did, so she couldn’t be sure, however. The only reason they had gotten to the topic of high schools was because Ron mentioned that he took Hermione to senior prom in high school and Draco shared his own prom experience with his friend Pansy, who was going to college in the south.

Hermione wondered for a moment about Draco’s sexuality because the way he acted with Tonks and what he was saying about his friend Pansy pointed to him being straight. But the fact that he was taking a queer history class didn’t seem like something a straight guy would do except for gen-ed requirements or something like that. So she thought maybe he might be bi. It was a bit weird, trying to figure out someone’s sexuality that she barely knew but it wasn’t like she didn’t do that all the time. Or that other people didn’t do all the time. Hermione had always been the token straight friend so it wasn’t a rare thing for her or her friends to talk about sexuality because they were always so open about their preferences and experiences. In her own experience, straight people were usually more guarded about their sexuality, because they assumed that everyone was straight and it wasn’t something they needed to talk about and it wasn’t a problem for them, a privilege her non-straight and non-cis friends didn’t have. It was something she learned early on when she met Ron and Harry but didn’t realize was a thing until she had her a short-lived boyfriend in eleventh grade who wasn’t interested or comfortable in discussing sexuality and sex the same way she was. Hermione didn’t want to assume anything about this new addition to the group, though, but she did wonder. It might be nice to have another straight person around who was aware of these things. Lavender was nice, but she didn’t get as along well with Ron and Harry as Hermione had hoped. But she recognized that Draco could very well be queer, just because he mentioned a girl and flirted with Tonks didn’t really say anything about him. Harry tended to flirt with anyone without even realizing it and he was always quick to announce how astoundingly gay he was. It was nice to think about, though, having a straight friend who would understand but Hermione didn’t want to get her hopes up, not that she would be all that disappointed if Draco turned out not to be straight….

Hermione let her thoughts drift away as they entered into Prefect Hall. She didn’t think that anyone had minded her being lost in her own world as they walked from Puddifoots to here. They probably hadn’t noticed, as the three boys were now busy trying to figure out which movie to start with.

Draco left his room open wide open as he began to finish unpacking. Ron and Harry were fiddling with the TV Ron had, trying to set it up in the common area. Hermione realized they probably didn’t have enough seating for everyone, so she called Blaise to tell him to bring chairs or something so that there would be more options. The two of them had talked over the summer quite a lot and it was nice to hear his voice again now that she was back in school. Seeing him yesterday with Luna had been wonderful. Hermione then called Luna, not wanting to leave her out of this gathering if she wanted to come, but turned out she was going to a book fair with a few of her friends from the previous semester.

Keeping her phone in her hand so that she would know when Blaise came to the building, Hermione made her way through Draco’s open door and he motioned over to his recently made bed for her to sit on as he flitted around his room.

“So you said you had a declared major, right?” Draco asked, “what is it exactly?”

Hermione brightened at the question, she loved to talk about her studies. “I’m a social work major. I thought about doing psychology for a while, but I took psych-101 and an intro to social work class and I realized that was more my steam.”

“Cool. I’m hoping that the classes I’m taking this semester will help me figure that kind of stuff out.”

“Well they sounded pretty interesting when you described them last night. I’m mostly taking gen-eds this semester to get them out of the way since I have a better idea now what I want to be studying in the long run.” Hermione watched as Draco re-folded the last of his clothes from his suitcase into the bottom-most drawer of his dresser. “Do you have many gen-eds left?”

“A few,” Draco answered, standing up from where he was kneeling with his clothes to sort out the mess that he left on his desk, “I mean I’ve only completed one semester here so far. I did a math class and a science class to start to get some of those gen-eds out of the way. I’m still taking one of each this semester to finish them up.”

“I should have done that. Instead, I just took classes that looked interesting, both semesters last year.”

“That was probably nice though, I mean you got to see different options and not take the bullshit filler classes. And I’m sure they covered some of your gen-eds anyway.”

“Yeah, true. So what else did you take your first semester?”

“Well, math and science, like I said. I took an ancient mythology class which was pretty interesting,”

“Yeah that class was really cool, I took it last fall semester!” Hermione interrupted and Draco smiled. “Trelawney was kind of eccentric, though”

“Definitely, but not in a bad way,” Draco said and then moved over to his second to last box, pulling out a water heater, some non-perishable food, and plastic eating utensils. “The barista at Puddifoot’s, Tonks, she was in that class with me two years ago.”

“Oh that’s so nice, I was wondering how you knew her. I saw her around a bit last year, but I never knew who she was. Her hair is pretty noticeable”

“I don’t know her all that well, actually, but we both recognized each other. It was nice to see a familiar face. Oh but to get back your question, other than the three I already mentioned, I also took an intro to gender and women’s studies, and western civilization 101. I actually think my first semester here was pretty normal. It feels like this one will be similar.” 

Hermione was intrigued by the list of classes Draco had decided to take. She was also a bit weirded out by the fact that Draco had begun to pull shoes from the bottom of the box with his eating items, but she resolved not to say anything. People packed their things in odd ways sometimes. Lavender had a thing about packing her dresses in the same place as her blankets and sheets which Hermione never understood. 

“Are you interested in women’s studies?” She decided to ask instead, hoping to get some answers about her other thoughts surrounding this new person in her life. Draco moved onto his last box to unpack which ended up being a tiny refrigerator, smaller even than the one that Hermione and Parvati were sharing this year. It looked like the one her father kept in the basement full of beer and batteries because it was too small to hold anything else.

“I’m actually not sure,” Draco responded thoughtfully, “It’s all very interesting, and the idea of studying would be nice, but I think I’m more interested in history, but I haven’t picked a concentration yet. I guess I’m hoping the history class I’m taking this semester, that Harry’s taking as well, might help me figure it out.”

Just as Hermione was going to respond, her phone started ringing. When she looked down at it, she saw that is was Blaise and politely excused herself from Draco’s room to answer it.

“Hey! You here?” She said into the phone as she walked back into the common area where Ron and Harry had successfully installed the TV and were now trying to get it connected to Ron's computer.

“Yeah, can you guys let me up?” Blaise said through the phone; Hermione could hear movement and voices around him and she pictured him in the Prefect lobby, watching as other students rushed by. 

“Yeah I’ll send Ron down.” She said, hung up, and then looked over at Ron. Having heard her, he made his way out of the room and down the hall. Hermione walked back into Draco’s room and Harry followed. 

“I’m almost done,” the blond boy said over his shoulder as he arranged his shoes at the bottom of this closet. 

“Cool,” said Harry, “Ron just went to let Blaise in. Cedric and Krum will probably be here pretty soon as well. Do you have a movie preference? We’re having trouble figuring out what to start with.”

Draco straightened up and looked over to where Hermione and Harry were sitting - on his bed. He smiled and leaned against his desk to talk to them.

“Well I thought Deadpool was a good option. I mean I don’t really know what kind of movies you guys like, but that is of one of those movies that are good for a group. That, or maybe we could watch a few episodes of Bob's Burgers - can’t go wrong there.”

“I was thinking The Dark Knight would be nice because Heath Ledger, but then also 10 Things I Hate About You for the same reason,” Harry said. Draco inclined his head in agreement. “But those would be fun and Ron said something about Zoolander. I’d rather not watch tv shows, though.” Hermione reached over and patted Harry’s hand which had begun to fidget with Draco’s blanket.

“We’ll figure it out! Or we’ll just have a stupidly long movie marathon. Either way, we can order in food or something.”

“Yeah, I just can’t believe school is starting again in three days. It’s so surreal.” Harry said quietly, strangely, as his fingers smoothed the bumps in the fabric. Hermione watched Draco’s eye track to the movement before letting out a sigh in agreement. 

“Break goes by so quick, I hate it,” she added just as they heard the dorm room open once again.

***

Ron opened the door to his dorm room with one hand as the other clutched at a large bean-bag chair that Blaise brought with him. Blaise was standing a little behind him, also holding onto a bean bag. Additionally, he had a lawn chair folded into its case strapped across his back so that he didn’t have to hold it. As they stepped through, Blaise was saying,

“I couldn’t find my second lawn chair - though I probably wouldn’t have been able to carry it along with everything else, to be honest.” 

“Nah it’s fine,” Ron said as he deposited the bean-bag chair in front of the couch, “I mean, we have a couch and two fold-y chairs. I think Draco might also have a chair and you brought three. There are, what, 6 - 7 of us, right? We definitely have enough.”

“True,” Blaise acknowledged after he dropped the other bean-bag chair and then pulled the lawn chair bag off his shoulders so he could open and unfold the chair inside. Ron took the bag and placed in under the coffee table so it wouldn’t get in the way. Harry and Hermione walked out of Draco’s room and sat on the couch, Blaise joined them. Ron made himself comfortable on one of the beanbags and smiled over to his friends.

“We gotta decide on a movie to start with, Krum and Cedric will be over soon.”

Hermione voiced her agreement and also suggested that they start popping the popcorn now, rather than waiting for the two boys to arrive.

Ron watched as his friends debated over movies and then as Draco emerged from his room and joined in on the conversation as he sat down on one of Ron’s chairs. Ron was happy to watch any of the options his friends were discussing so he let them chose and he nodded his head every once in awhile. After they finally decided to start with Pirates of the Caribbean because that was an easy choice and then probably move on to Deadpool or Empire Records, depending on how they were feeling, Ron got a text from Krum telling him that he and Cedric had come. It was Harry who went down to get them this time because Ron was comfy in his bean-bag and didn’t want to go back down again. Hermione started popping the popcorn in Ron’s microwave and Draco looked over at Ron. It seemed like there was something Draco wanted to ask him, like there was a question on the tip of his tongue he wasn’t ready to let go of. But the blond didn’t say anything and just let his face soften into a polite, blank kind of face.

Ron nodded slightly at him and asked, “Maybe should get to know each other a bit better later, when everyone is gone?”

“That’d be nice,” Draco said softly in return, “We can talk about the space and all that stuff too, right?”

“Yeah, for sure,” Ron reassured him, and reached over to pat his bony knee, “and I’d like to get to know you better anyway, not just ‘cause we’re sharing a space. You seem cool enough.” He grinned teasingly at Draco who gave him a tentative grin back. 

“You do too,” Draco replied as Harry walked loudly through the door with Krum and Cedric behind him. Ron’s eyes immediately jumped to his boyfriend as he came into the room. He beckoned the man over with a wave of his hand, but Krum moved to put the bags he was carrying down on the coffee table first.

“We got everything!” Cedric was saying to the general room, “candy, chips, ice-cream for later - hope you don’t mind if we use your freezer Ron, figured it wouldn’t be a problem. Oh, and some things called Cauldron Cakes,” he lifted his left arm, as if to show off the cake buried deep within the selection of grocery bags hanging off of it, “the Honeydukes owner, can’t remember her name, lovely woman, though, said they were the new dessert of the season! And the sample she gave us was delicious.”

“To be sure,” Krum agreed as he pulled some Hershey bars, a container of small chocolate chip cookies, and a box of brownies out of one of the bags. “Oh, and we got some butterbeer, too. We thought about getting actual beer, but we didn’t know what brands people would like, so we figured, we’d just go simple.”

“I don’t know if simple is the right word of all of this,” Blaise poked at Cedric with the tip of his index finger, “this is a shit-ton of food, man.”

“We’re having a movie marathon, we need all the sustenance we can get,” Cedric said seriously, patting Blaise heavily on the shoulder, “also, the left-overs are gonna be amazing!” Blaise laughed up him but raise a butterbeer bottle off the coffee table in mock salute.

After Krum finished unloading all of his bags and some of Cedric’s he came over with a butterbeer and a chocolate bar to Ron who wiggled to the side of the bean-bag so Krum could climb in with him. Ron moved so his head was resting on Krum shoulder and their legs tangled a bit in front of them. Krum kissed him in the side of the head and asked, “So what are we watching first?” He twisted off the cap of the butterbeer bottle and offered it to Ron who sipped at it happily.

“Pirates of the Caribbean,” Harry exclaimed as he accepted a bag of newly-popped popcorn from Hermione. She passed one over for Ron and Krum to share, one to Blaise who was still sitting next to Harry, one to Draco who was on one of Ron’s chairs, and one to Cedric who deposited himself the other bean-bag after putting a few things in Ron’s fridge. Ron watched as she wedged herself between Harry and Blaise who said, 

“I guess we didn’t really need all the extra chairs, did we?” Blaise said, eyeing the two empty chairs (one Ron’s and one the folding one he brought). 

“No,” Harry laughed, “Sorry you had to carry all of your stuff over. How’d you manage it anyway? Those bean-bags chairs are huge.”

“I’m just that strong” Blaise answered, flexing his muscles and wiggling his eyebrows. He then smirked over at Ron and put a finger to his lips. Ron grinned and turned to whisper loudly in Krum’s ear, “He had a friend help him.” He then looked back over to the rest of the group and asked if they were ready to start watching the movie. The resounding affirmations from everyone made it clear that they were, Ron pointed the remote and his computer on the coffee table for someone to finish setting it up the movie. Harry grabbed the remote and tapped at the computer for a moment before snatching two cookies and a cauldron cake for Hermione, and pressed play. 

They watched quietly as the first scene of the movie unfolded, grinning to each other a little when Elizabeth Swan sang the creepy pirates song and later when Will Turner introduced himself. The first person who spoke was Blaise, though, after the flashback saying,

“See - her father, whatever his name is - they mark the passage of time with his hair. It’s ridiculous, they don’t even try to make him look older, they just make his wig grey!”

“What? Why does that matter? Also isn't the point that most men wore white wigs at that time anyway, I don't think it has anything to do with his age...” Hermione asked.

“I just think it’s funny. I mean when I was younger I definitely thought he looked older, but now it’s obvious they just changed his fucking hair style!” 

With that comment setting the tone of the rest of the movie, they continued to watch. Blaise commented on everything, from the second hand embarrassment of Will Turner breaking a piece of the Swan’s house and pretending like he didn’t, to asking whether or not it was actually possible to trap enough air under an upturned boat and use it to walk across the ocean floor, to the stark green-ness of the apple Jack Sparrow was eating casually on a pirate ship. Hermione and Cedric were the only ones who really commented on anything else, and most of them just laughed at all the appropriate parts. Ron noted that Draco seemed to be enjoying himself.

“Do you think there’s another Disney movie this silly but also so full of dead people and murder?” Hermione wondered towards the end of the movie and Ron picked up his phone and did some googling. While Harry and Blaise speculated with her.

“Well, Nightmare Before Christmas and The Black Cauldron seem to have just as much, if not more dead people,” Ron said after a bit, “it looks like there are actually a bunch of scary, strange, weird movies that Disney made over the years…”

“Also, a huge amount of horrible deaths that just kind of happen, like how the queen-witch in Snow White died. Even if it’s for kids, Disney movies can be pretty dark,” Krum added to Hermione and tucked Ron a little closer to his body. 

“True,” Hermione allowed, “like that Smart House movie was creepy as hell.” That comment garnered her murmurs of agreement and they all turned their attention back to the screen. 

As the movie was coming to an end, Krum pressed a tiny kiss to the side of Ron’s head and whispered, “no, he’s a pirate” along with Elizabeth Swan, causing him to flush a little and glanced around. Ron then grinned and kissed Krum fully on the lips and brought a hand up to rest on his chest. They returned their focus to the screen after tonguing at each others mouths quietly to see that Harry had the remote back in his hands and was preparing the next movie. 

Ron was glad to note that no one had been sending them annoyed, though usually amused, looks or anything, so he assumed his and Krum’s moment hadn’t caught anyone’s attention. He liked being sappy with his boyfriend, and usually, his friends didn’t mind, but with a new person with them, it made sense to keep their PDA to a minimum. He wiggled up from Krum and the bean bag just as Harry managed to bring up Deadpool on the TV and headed for the bathroom. 

“Do you want us to pause it?” Hermione called after him.

He answered, “nah, I’ll just be a minute,” before closing the door behind him. 

When he returned, Krum had snagged another butterbeer and replaced their empty bag of popcorn with and movie-theater box of snow caps. Ron snatched up a Hogwarts University-edition™ chocolate frog box before sitting back down and accepting the bottle from his boyfriend. He drank from it before passing it back and opening the box. He groaned softly after pulling the card out from under the chocolate frog and checking who was on it.

“Dumbledore again,” he said to Harry, seeing his questioning glance. Harry groaned as well and grabbed a different box off the table. Draco looked between them confused. “What? You’ve never had a chocolate frog?” Ron asked, “ but they’ve been around for ages. Bill - my oldest brother, even has some from when he went here.”

“No, I know what they are,” Draco assured him, “I just didn’t realize there was anything special about them.” He gestured towards the card Ron had placed unceremoniously onto the coffee table. “I didn’t even know they had - what? trading cards? - in them. I kind of just figured it was chocolate shaped in a frog mold and that was it. I guess I never saw anyone actually with a chocolate frog before.”

“Weird!” Harry said and then handed the box he had taken to Draco, “Here, open one for yourself and see who you get. Usually, they’re just the top people who run HU. The special ones are random professors and staff members. I think half of the ones that Ron and I’ve found were Dumbledore. Once I got McGonagall it was amazing. I showed it to her at work - she smiled at me and gave me a cookie.” While Harry was explaining, Ron watched as Draco opened the box. He lifted the chocolate frog to inspect it, nodded to himself, before peering down at the card. 

“Who’d you get?” Hermione asked before Harry or Ron could, taking her attention away from the movie.

Draco took the card from the box and flipped it over to read the back. “It’s one of the librarians, Irma Pince. I remember her. She was rather unpleasant.”

Ron was surprised, he never heard of anyone getting a librarian card before. Once, Luna got a chocolate frog and with it, Argus Filch’s (the head of Maintenance) card and that had seemed pretty rare until she found out that Terry Boot, who was a fellow student of hers in one of her courses, also had a Filch card. He said this to Draco and Harry nodded along with his words. Slightly wide-eyed, Draco placed Pince’s card next to Dumbledore and took a bite of the chocolate frog’s head. Harry picked up the card to look over it himself before replacing it and grabbing the third, and last, box from the table. 

“Who wants to share this with me?” He asked the room and Cedric happily took him up on the offer. Harry made a disappointed sound as he looked at his card and passed it to Ron before snapping the frog in half to hand over to Cedric.

Throughout the chocolate-frog conversation, Hermione and Blaise had turned on the closed captioning of the movie and were commenting to each other about what was happening. Ron glanced down at Rowena Ravenclaw smiling up at him from the card and shared an annoyed look with Harry. He tossed it to where the other two cards lay and then settled back against Krum, who took a bite out of the frog when Ron offered, to watch Deadpool.

***

It was late when the last movie, X-Men, ended and Cedric stood up and stretched. Draco watched as his shirt rode up on his stomach, exposing the lower portion of his abdomen and the light dusting of his happy trail. Cedric smiled at him when he caught him looking before asking Krum if he wanted to call it a night and walk back their dorm with him. Blaise stood up as well, tossing a small now-empty container of ice-cream into the trash bag the group had slowly been filling the past bunch of hours. 

“I think I’m going to head out, too,” he said, yawning widely as Krum nodded to Cedric. 

“I can help you take back your chairs if you want,” Hermione volunteered and Blaise accepted gratefully.

It took Ron and Krum a few moments to untangle themselves, Draco noticed and thought it was very endearing. As the day passed, Draco felt more and more comfortable with this group of people, letting himself curl up on his chair in a very un-Malfoy-ish way, with his knees drawn up to his chest so his entire body was on the seat and under the blanket he pulled out of his room during the second movie. His blanket had kept him warm and cozy when he shifted under it every so often, but he certainly hadn’t felt as comfy as Ron and Krum had, cuddled up together sharing body heat. Even Harry, Hermione, and Blaise managed to make a notably uncomfortable couch warm and welcoming. Draco and Cedric had been the only one without people to share space with, which didn’t seem to phase Cedric in the slightest as he burrowed into Blaise’s bean bag chair. Draco didn’t let this phase him either. In fact, he had had quite a fantastic night by all standards - with good food and good company and fun, silly movies to enjoy. But he as he watched his new friends beginning to move around the room, eat little snacks here and there as they cleared the garbage and tried to return the room back to its original space, he couldn’t help but feel exhausted. It was a good kind of tired, though, not like the empty tiredness that had plagued him throughout the summer. It seeped in his bones in a very different way, heavy, but not debilitating. Draco unfolded his body from his chair and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders, not wanting to part from it. He collected a few wrappers and the chocolate frog boxes into the trash bag that Cedric passed to him. 

Blaise folded up his unused folding chair, slipped it into its bag, and pulled the strap over his head. He and Hermione watch grabbed one of the bean bags and wished everyone a goodnight before stepping out of the dorm. Harry waited with Cedric as Krum walked quickly into Ron’s room to grab his clothes from the day before and the hat Ron’s mom made for him. Draco tied off the trash bag after making sure that all the debris from their marathon was gone and handed it to Harry.

“Do you mind sticking in a dumpster on your way out? I’m sure there’s one nearby,” He asked, feeling a bit awkward, but not sure how else to ask Harry to do something for him. He needn’t have worried, though as Harry just smiled at him and said, “yeah, sure.”

“Okay, I’m ready to go,” Krum announced after giving Ron a hug goodbye and a quick kiss on the cheek. Cedric and Harry nodded and Cedric opened the door, sending a “goodnight” over his shoulder as he went. Krum followed him, smiling over at Ron and Draco and held the door open for Harry. Harry grinned over at his best friend and Draco, hefting the bag a little in some sort of solute - Draco wasn’t sure - said, “‘night boys!” and walked through the open door. Krum closed it behind them and then Draco and Ron were left alone in the common space that felt a bit too empty and quiet now that it was just the two of them.

“Well!” Ron said, sitting down heavily on the couch, “that was nice.” 

“Yeah it was,” Draco answered, tucking the blanket more firmly to his body and sat back down on the chair he had occupied earlier. 

“Hey, why don’t we go sit in my room, it’s much comfier, and we should have our _roommate talk_ ” Draco smiled at Ron’s emphasized words and agreed, quickly standing up again.

They ended up both sitting on Ron’s bed, Ron leaning against his pillows and Draco cross-legged and hesitant. Ron had retrieved the last of the ice-cream (mint chocolate chip) from his freezer and two spoons before situating himself and Draco found it relieving to have something to focus on aside from his roommate. He was a bit lost, however, not sure how to proceed now that he and Ron were in this position. Draco fiddled with the spoon in his hands before reaching forward and scooping out some ice-cream, figuring that it was better to do something than just sit and wait. He wondered briefly at the fact that he hadn’t had real food that day other than the sandwich at Madam Puddifoot’s, but shoved that thought away as the cold cream melting in his mouth and flooded his taste buds with overwhelming minty sweetness. 

“So.” He said after swallowing, “I never really had a chance to talk about this kinda stuff with my last roommate, so...” he trailed off, trying to collect his thoughts, “I don’t really know how it’s supposed to go. How should we start?” 

Ron nodded seriously at him and reached forward to get a bit of ice-cream for himself. “I guess we can start by talking about the space, like how we want to share it, you know? I’ve never had a dorm with a single before.”

“Yeah, um, well, I guess because we both have our own rooms, we don’t have to worry about getting in each other’s way or messiness. But we do share the bathroom and the common area.” Draco answered, gesturing behind him to Ron’s open door. 

“Yeah, ok,” Ron nodded, and said, “I saw that you brought a thing of toilet paper, my mom and I got a case also, so we’re pretty much set in that regard, at least for a few weeks. We also got some cleaning supplies - they’re in the cabinet under the sink.”

“Yeah I saw them when I added what I brought.” Draco replied and thought for a moment of how to phrase what he wanted to say next, not wanting to sound annoying or patronizing by wanting the space clean. “I’d really like to keep this space, maybe not completely clean, but orderly maybe? We’re not children and we don’t need to make a chores list or something, but it would make me feel better if we both tried to keep things from getting too messy or anything.”

“Sounds good and let’s do that for the common area too, just like keeping it as non-messy as possible.” Ron allowed, and Draco felt a tiny bit of tension in his shoulders slip away. It seemed like Ron wasn’t put off by Draco’s want to keep their dorm tidy. He added, “tonight was good with the trash bag and everything, it really wasn’t that bad at all,” to which Draco inclined his head in agreement and reached out to spoon another mouthful of ice-cream from the container in between of them.

“I thought so as well,” he said. “Would it be ok with you if I moved my minifridge into the main area? It doesn’t hold much, but it takes up space in my room and it could be useful out there, especially if we have nights like this again.”

Ron hummed around his spoon before saying, “yeah that would be awesome. Do you need help moving it?”

“No, I don’t have much in it yet. I was hoping to head over to Diagon Alley at some point in the next few days before school starts to get a few things, but I brought some things from home.” Draco thought about this small stash of food in his room, most of it came at the suggestions that Mr. Dobby made for him when they talked about the details of him moving out of the mansion. He had essentially put together a kit for Draco, full of all the necessary dorm-things that he would need, stuff he hadn’t even realized he needed until they were suggested. Draco had a sudden feeling of being out of place - taking a year and a half to not do school wasn’t that much time, but it seemed to be a long enough time for Draco to forget that he would require things like sponges and an umbrella. 

“I can go with you tomorrow if you want,” Ron proposed, bringing Draco out of his thoughts, “Mom left me with a lot of food, but it’d be nice to check it out anyway. Maybe Hermione can join us, she mentioned wanted to get groceries the other day I think…”

“That would be nice,” Draco answered, and wished to add something else, not wanting their conversation to stall, but his mind drew a blank. Ron looked like he was mulling something over, the space between his eyebrows up in concentration. Draco figured that he didn’t need to worry about the conversation being over as it was clear that Ron had more in mind to talk about. Draco couldn’t imagine what, but he waited patiently and rewarded himself with another mouthful of the now meltier than solid ice-cream. 

“So,” Ron said slowly, looking at the spoon in his hand like it might hold the answer to what he was worried about. Draco tried not to let the word make him anxious, as it sat in the air heavily. But Ron looked up and met Draco’s eyes. He smiled lightly, a bit tightly, but Draco was comforted by it all the same. “I had some difficulty with my roommate last year and I want you to know. I know that we don’t actually live in the same room, but it’s probably still important.” Ron said, and then added, “Actually, maybe we should talk about past roommates! That way we can make sure things that were hard before are a bit easier.”

Draco nodded, thinking that was fair. He thought back to Theo as a roommate and returned Ron’s soft expression, “My roommate my first semester wasn’t that bad. We had one of those 2 people per room, 4 people per suit dorm configurations. We just didn’t get along all that well, we didn’t say much to each other, and he was kind of messy. He would have his girlfriends or whoever over without giving me warning besides the classic sock on the door handle, which honestly could have been funny if it weren’t so annoying.” There wasn’t much to say other than that so Draco asked Ron worriedly, “What about you?” 

“Creevey was also a bit of a mess. He stayed up really late a lot, he’d let me turn out the light, but he wasn’t very quiet.”

Draco interjected, “I’m not sure of the kind of hours I’ll be keeping, just so you know. I haven’t been in college for a while and I want to keep up with my work.”

But Ron was shaking his head, “I’m not really worried about that actually, I mean it was annoying with Creevey, but we live in separate rooms so…” his sentence trailed off and he went to take another spoonful of soft mostly melted ice cream. Draco shifted awkwardly, sitting up a bit straighter. Ron let out a frustrated sigh before catching Draco’s eye again. “Look, last year, it wasn’t that hard before of the weird hours and the mess, I’m used to that, I have a shit ton of older siblings. I, uh, wow I’ve done this so many times, and; it still sucks.” Draco turned Ron’s words over in his head and had an inkling of what Ron was trying to say but he let his roommate take his time before expanding on his words. “Sorry,” Ron mumbles but Draco shakes his head, trying to be reassuring.

“Hey, it’s ok, take your time,” he says lightly fighting down an urge to pat Ron on the shoulder feeling strange that it was something he was inclined to do and knowing it wouldn’t be appreciated as the two of them had barely known each other a day. This was their time to work out how they related to each other and Draco was determined not to ruin it with his awkwardness.

“Okay,” Ron said, more to himself than Draco, and then said in a confident easy way that kind of surprised Draco, “ I’m transgender and I’m a guy and I use he/him pronouns and Creevey wasn’t all that great to me when he found out. It wasn’t terrible, but I’d rather you know this about me now.”

“Oh,” Draco says and then scrambled for a second about what to say, not wanting to freeze up and make things weird or give Ron the impression that he didn’t accept him or anything terrible like that. A bolt of anger at Ron’s previous roommate ran through his body. “I’m sorry he treated you that way. Thank you for letting me know, though I don’t think that changes anything, right?” Draco felt himself babbling, but didn’t know how to stop himself, “Unless you want something to change…? I don’t really know, I don’t want to say the wrong thing,” he shook his head again, “I’m cisgender but I’m also queer so even though I can’t empathize, I can probably sympathize…” Draco let his words float away. 

Ron chuckled, unsure as well, and offered him a smile, Draco found a smile for him as well and Ron said, “Thanks,” paused, and then added, “know that we know these things about each other, let’s finish the ice cream before it melts.” They two of them leaned forward with their spoons to dig at the container between them. Draco was glad for it, happy that Ron had trusted him with this knowledge and that he got to come out to his new friend without it being weird and strange. Ron seemed more relaxed, which was definitely a good thing, but Draco knew this wasn't and shouldn't be the last time they talked about these types of things.

“I don’t really know what to say now,” Draco said, surprising himself, after more sugar and cream found its way to his stomach. Ron laughed around the spoon in his mouth before drawing it out.

“Yeah, well coming out to people is weird business, isn’t it?”

“Well I’ve actually not done it much before. I didn’t really discuss my sexuality with my parents before they died. Pansy was easy, but that’s because she knew I wasn’t straight almost immediately but she let me take my time I guess. This is rather pleasant.”

“Yeah, well every time it’s a bit different for me.” Ron replied, and Draco was relieved that his roommate didn’t focus on the mention of his parents - it was refreshing. “My family was pretty easy actually. It wasn’t until high school that I really met people who made things difficult. This kind of reminds me about when I talked to Hermione about my gender for the first time. Though, we were hanging out and eating frosting and pretzels instead of ice cream.” Ron thought for a second, “It was right after I asked her out, like on a date. I think she already knew, and we’d been friends at that point for a few months, but she was great about it...”

“You dated Hermione?” Draco asked grinning, slightly taken aback.

“It was a few months after she started going to my school, in 10th grade. I think we dated for about a year maybe, probably a little less.”

“Oh,” was all Draco could think to say, having trouble picturing the two together, mostly because Ron and Krum seemed like such a good match, it was hard to imagine Ron with anyone else.

“We ended it when we realized we were basically just friends who kissed a lot and fooled around a little. We went to prom together as friends which was nice - you know that though, we talked about that earlier, right? Harry was worried we’d not get along afterwards, but really nothing changed at all.”

Draco smiled, thinking about the messy-haired, green-eyed man, “Harry sounds like a good friend.”

“He’s my best friend and I’ve known him forever.”

“I have a friend like that - Pansy - I think I told you guys about her. Our parents were close so we were often placed in the care of the same babysitter when we were young and they went to parties and functions and all that.” 

The two of them smiled at eat other, Ron pushed the almost empty ice cream carton towards Draco, saying “You should finish it. Also, side note, I’ve been trying to persuade people to stop using the word guys when they’re talking about a group of people who might not be men. Because gendered language and all that, I read an article about it over the summer. I’ve been slacking a bit on it recently, but I think it’s important.”

Draco, having taken the carton and was spooning the last of the ice cream into his mouth, just inclined his head to show that he heard and gave himself a moment to swallow before telling Ron that he understood and would try as well, “it shouldn’t be that hard, right?”

“It’s harder for me than I thought it would be, but I’m just one person,” Ron shrugged and then yawned. Draco yawned in response, raising his hand to cover his mouth. “By the way, thanks for being cool about Krum staying over last night.”

“Yeah, sure it wasn’t a big deal. Someone staying in your bed doesn’t really affect me,” he tried to say a teasingly. Ron sent him a little smirk before softening his face and informing him that it might be a common occurrence and Draco reassured him that he didn’t mind. 

After that, Draco felt that it was probably time he headed back to his room, so he moved his way off of Ron’s bed, grabbing the empty ice cream carton as he went. Ron reached out his hand for Draco to return his spoon and Draco found them later cleaned, lying on a towel next to the sink, drying, while he was brushing his teeth. As he stepped into the shower not long after, he ran the day through his mind. It seemed to have gone on for a long time, the late lunch, the movie marathon, and then the talk with Ron. He felt exhausted as the water ran rivers over his shoulders and down his body, but stable. After some time, he realized how grateful he was to his roommate. In the two days that Draco had returned to college, his new friend had not only trusted him to get to know his friends, but also felt comfortable enough to reveal an aspect of himself to Draco. He recognized that it came from the negative experience Ron had the year before, but he allowed himself a sense of security in Ron opening up to him and then accepting his own admission of queerness.

Draco was honestly rather shocked that he had landed a roommate that was so nice. He hoped Pansy wouldn’t make fun of him for it the next time they skyped. He hadn’t seen her in a long time, but they managed to keep in contact while she was away at college and she knew how anti-social he had become after his parents' death and always pushed at him to try to make friends at his workplace. Over the last year and a half, he had seen her only when she came home for breaks and their visits were short and infrequent. But Pansy kept him up to date with all the gossip and news from the various families that they had grown up with and she shared with him her the dramas at university. Draco realized he hadn’t seen her during the summer and wondered angrily at himself for not noticing until they were both away at college. They had made tentative plans when she returned to her own family’s estate in May to get together at a local coffee shop, but he had let his aching anxiety and subsequent inability to pull himself out of pseudo-laziness get the better of him and they had not managed to make it happen in the end. 

Pushing these thoughts away, Draco made the decision to masturbate in the shower and not in bed like he would have normally preferred. Even if he was in a room by himself, it was still new and uncomfortable. He stepped a little bit away from the spray of the water so that it was still warm on his back, but so that it wouldn’t wash away the body soap that he used as like lubricant to move his hand smoothly up and down his cock. He took his time, squeezing at his head and thumbing over his slit, teasing himself and enjoying this simple, familiar pleasure. When he felt it building and the tell-tale ache in his lower abdomen, Draco turned around back under the water as he came, breathing deeply through his mouth, letting some of the cascading water in. He watched his come and the soap mingle together on the floor of the shower, before being swept quickly away down the drain. Draco gave himself a moment to collect himself, feel the hot water on his skin and against his oversensitized body. 

Tapping at his phone once securely in bed, damp-haired and warm, Draco brought up his text messages and clicked on Pansy’s name. He scrolled through some of their more recent texts which were of him informing her he was going back to school. He smiled at the ‘!!!!’ that she had sent him and the multitude of questions she shot back. 

> [to Pansy Parkinson 12:46] Can we skype sometime soon? Haven’t seen you in a while.
> 
> [from Pansy Parkinson 12:50] definitely. Let’s try on friday after the first week of school’s over? You can tell me everything and ill catch you up on the ~drama~ which of course has already started Daphne had an interesting summer.
> 
> [to Pansy Parkinson 12:52] Sounds good, looking forward to hearing all about it
> 
> [from Pansy Parkinson 12:53] [winking face emoji] [face throwing a kiss emoji] [heart emoji] 
> 
> [to Pansy Parkinson 12:53] [smiley face] goodnight, Pans
> 
> [from Pansy Parkinson 12:54] goodnight [heart emoji] 

Smiling to himself, Draco set his phone aside and reached for his computer.

***

The next few days were a blur. The quiet campus became a loud, unforgiving wave of people as students returned from their holidays and parents helped them settle in. Harry had to come early, to start his RA duties and help the freshmen out during their Orientation week, so he was grateful that his friends had decided to join him. He was a bit surprised by how many people he knew moved back to school around the same time that he did. But it really was wonderful that he had people to hang out with in between showing the freshmen around and mentally preparing himself for school.

Food shopping with Ron and his new roommate Draco was an adventure. Hermione had opted out seeing as her refrigerator was still out of commision so it was just the three of them. They had managed to put it off until the day before classes started, relying on the food they brought from home and the occasional meal at the dining hall or coffee shop - or at least, that’s what Harry was assuming. He hadn’t seen his friends much after their movie marathon. He constantly had to be around when the kids on his floor were moving in to help answer questions, direct them to the right places, and encourage them to actually participate in the Orientation activities. He wasn’t all that successful in that regard, most of them elected to stay in their rooms or hang out with their new friends rather than follow him to the admittedly awkward events the school’s Student Government Association whipped up, hoping to excite and welcome their new students. 

Between all that and managing the front desk of the administration building every other morning, Harry had been the busiest he could remember being at the start of a semester. It was a relief when Ron texted, asking him to accompany him and Draco to the on-campus supermarket-type-thing, Diagon Alley. The building had always seemed a bit weird to Harry, it’s lopsided walls and strange, swirly decorations gave it an eery, fluorescent vibe and the merchandise it sold was honestly a bit wacky. It, of course, had most of the necessary foodstuffs that small grocery stores should, but it also stocked rows and rows of large, strangely colored objects and had tanks of polkadotted lizards in random aisles. 

As the three of them made their way through Diagon Alley, Harry found his attention split between the two men he was with. Ron had a look on his face that Harry recognized as ‘I-need-to-talk-to-you-about-something-vaguely-uncomfortable-but-I’m-determined’ but he chose not to prod at his friend until they were alone. Draco on the other hand, Harry found rather fascinating. He was an enticing mix of nervous and proud (of what Harry wasn’t sure). The blond held himself with such grace and poise that the anxious twitches of his fingers and the flush of his cheeks seemed out of place. While it appeared that he knew what he wanted, he second guessed himself quite often, especially in a grocery store where there was very little to wonder about - other than the decorations and the floaty music that danced out of the speakers and into the shop. 

Puzzling silently at his two companions, Harry forgot to buy half the things he wanted, though looking back on it when he returned to his room, he was glad for - most of the things he had on his list were frivolous and it wouldn’t make sense for him to spend his small amount of hard earned money on things he could easily get from the Great Hall, where he already had a meal plan paid for. 

Harry and Ron had dropped Ron’s bags of purchases and Draco off at their dorm, before making their way over to Harry’s. He side-eyed his red-headed friend as they began their walk, not wanting to push him into revealing whatever was bugging him, but he knew Ron would spit it out eventually, no matter how weird or embarrassing it was, though, at this point, Harry didn’t really know how Ron could think anything was embarrassing between the two of them. They’d known each other for so long and literally talked about everything that there wasn’t really a subject that could phase them, probably. And it’s not like they didn’t hang out over the summer and know everything about each other anyway. But Harry let Ron think through it and take his time. Eventually Ron decided to just make small talk on their way to Ravenclaw Tower and Harry went along with it, prattling on about classes and what their professors might be like, not wanting to make his friend any more uncomfortable than he already was. It wasn’t until they closed the door behind them and looked around Harry’s new living area that Ron turned to Harry, ears burning.

“I need your advice,” he said quietly, “well not really your advice, more like encouragement… maybe?” Harry offered him a smile and moved to sit on his bed. He motioned for Ron to join him. 

“Yeah, sure, what’s up?” Harry replied as Ron climbed on his bed beside him. He fidgeted once he sat down, unable to get comfortable. Harry wanted to frown at that, but he refrained, just letting his question hang in the air invitingly.

Ron flashed him a tiny grin and said, “It’s silly really, and you probably don’t want to hear about mine and Krum’s sex life, but…” Ron trailed off and looked down as his lap, freckles bright. 

“I don’t mind at all, you know that.” Harry said lightly and then tried to make Ron giggle by asking, “You gonna try bondage or something?” jokingly, swaying a bit to the side so that their shoulders bumped up next to each other. Ron sighed and leaned into him.

“No, super more vanilla than that, sadly enough.” Ron smiled tightly like he didn’t really want to before trying to look serious, “cuddle?”

Harry bumped his shoulder again and moved up the bed so that he was lying down, Ron flopped down beside him and then turned his body so his face against Harry’s side, one of his arms slid across Harry’s abdomen. Harry brought a hand up to tangle in Ron’s hair and started playing with it absently. He felt them both relax as they settled on top of the blankets. “So what are you trying to do then?” Ron answered him, but the words were muffled, Harry smiled up at the ceiling and tugged lightly at the soft strands of hair between his fingers, “come on, you can tell me.”

“Ugh okay, well, Krum and I kinda talked about um, me, ah, actually fucking him.”

“What?” Harry’s hands paused in their tangle of Ron’s short hair, “Don’t you two already fuck? Haven’t you been having sex for a while now?” He looked down at the top of Ron’s head with incredulity.

Ron huffed out a semi-amused bread and said, “Well yeah, but like, I mean we’ve never done the Ron-is-on-top in a penetrative kinda way, you know?” 

And Harry began to understand what his friend was unsure about. It was always scary to try new things even with people you loved and trusted. Ron was nervous about trying out a completely different sexual experience than he’d had before. Harry was a bit nervous in return that he couldn’t offer that much in the way of advice because while he had been a top in the penetrative sense, as well as a bottom, it was probably a bit different if you were a person who had a penis. He wondered if it would have been better for Ron to talk to Hermione or someone else with a vagina about this, but then felt bad for thinking those thoughts. He could and should be able to support his friend, even if their experiences were different. He blurted out the first thing that came to his mind “Oh, okay. So, what, you got a strapon or something?” He cringed a little at those words but Ron snorted.

“Yeah basically.”

“Well that sounds pretty awesome, if I’m gonna be honest. What exactly are you worried about? How can I help you?”

“I guess I don’t actually need help, I just wanted to talk to someone about it other than Krum. I mean he’s my boyfriend so of course we talked and are talking about it. But like, I’ve never done something like this before! It’s a bit nerve wracking.” As he talked, Ron moved to lay on his back. His head lay in the space below Harry’s extended arm, and his his knees folded up so his feet were flat on the bed. Settled, he rest his hands on the flat of his abdomen and joined Harry’s observation of the ceiling.

“Okay so let’s talk about it!”

Ron let out a soft sigh, “I don’t even know what I want to talk about, it feels like a big thing, even though I know it’s not, I mean it’s not like I’ve never had sex before. I guess it just feels like it shouldn’t have taken this long, maybe… I don’t know, I’m about to be a Sophomore in uni and I still haven’t actually fucked anyone...” his words trailed off sadly and Harry was surprised.

Harry, in a similar fashion to Ron, changed position as he talked. He moved so he was laying on his side, facing Ron, wanting to look at his face. He lifted his head on the pillow to be more comfortable and bent his knees slightly in the space under Ron’s own bent legs. “Hey, wait, Ron, you know sex isn’t all about penetration and you _have actually_ fucked someone before. It’s totally ok that this is your first time doing this specific thing and that you haven’t done it before this time. And you can hold out on it for as long as you want - just because you and Krum have been talking about it doesn’t mean it has to happen immediately, well I guess I don't know how long you two have been talking about it, but still. There shouldn’t be any pressure for you to even have sex like that if you don’t want to.” 

“No I know that, and I do want to. It just feels different. Exciting but strange,” Ron also allowed his body to turn towards Harry, bringing one shoulder off from the bed.

“I get that. It is kinda scary to do new things, even if you want to do it, right? I mean I was nervous the first time I had sex. And even though I think I know what I’m doing, I’m sure I’d be nervous trying something new”

“Okay, yeah,” Ron said, “so what would be something that you haven’t done yet that you would be nervous to do?”

“Have sex with a girl probably,” Harry let his embarrassment flood his face, before smiling with a small twinge of sadness.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that’s something you haven’t done before.”

Harry laughed out loud at that, “I mean I have dated girls before but I’ve never… yeah, weird, I know, but I guess it’s the same kind of thing in a way, right? Like both of us are in a time of our lives where these things that are like socially expected of us to have done, but it’s okay that we haven’t yet.”

They fell into a contemplative silence, letting their conversation sink in. Eventually Harry got up to use the restroom, and upon returning, snuggled up closer to Ron, tucking himself around his friend’s body. They lay pressed close to each other, breathing in even breaths, remarking occasionally on something that ran through their minds, or plucking a random question to play around with and unpack between them. Ron leaned around Harry at some point to locate Harry’s bluetooth speaker and phone so that he could play one of the playlists that Krum had made for him.

The hours whittled quietly away, punctuated as well by a few knocks on the doors from Harry’s freshman. Ron stayed on the bed when Harry went to help him and every once in awhile he and Krum would exchange texts. It was hard for Krum to be consistent because today was one of his band practice afternoons, but Ron didn’t mind at all as he pleasantly drifted through the afternoon. Harry was glad for it, it had been a busy week and it was nice to get some time with his best friend.


	3. Chapter Three

The first week of classes went by in a blur for Draco. His first class, intro to Statistics, was at ten o’clock on Monday and taught by Professor Vector. She seemed like a nice enough teacher, if a bit strict, but Hermione had high praise for the class and its teacher, so Draco wasn’t that worried. The three-page syllabus she had asked everyone to print out and bring to class - which maybe only about a third of the class actually did - was succinct and to the point. Vector went over it in a timely and efficient manner before ending the class and allowing the students to leave early, reminding them of the online assessment they needed to complete by their next class, on Wednesday.

As Draco returned his printed syllabus to his bag and stood up, waiting for a few students to pass him so that he could also exit the room, he noticed Luna sitting at the back of the class. He watched as she stood up, tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder as she took out her phone and started tapping at it. He waited as she walked up the rows of desks, head bowed toward her screen, before following her as she exited the room in order to say hi to her. Draco was a bit apprehensive to do so, as he had only met Luna once, but figured if he was going to be friends with this group of people, he would do it right.

“Hey, Luna,” He said lightly as she began to walk by him. She looked up and over at him, her blue eyes seeming to sparkle under the fluorescent lights. He waved at her with a stiff hand and she nodded.

“Hi Draco.”

He fell into step behind her, and was startled by the strange images that were painted on her backpack. It appeared that Luna, or someone else, had painted a purple and pink octopus across the fabric, over the zippers and pockets. The octopus’s tentacles which were covered in violently bright magenta suction cups were wrapped around paintings of various objects including a pencil, a radish and turnip and a pear, and a rather indelicately squashed looking birthday cake; it seemed as though the more he looked at the bag, the more he discovered. Draco stumbled after her hurriedly to give her a compliment which she accepted gracefully and offered to paint his bag for him if he wanted. 

“...the only person who’s let me paint their bag is Neville. I think everyone else just thinks my paintings would be too eccentric for them, but I’d make sure they’d match people’s comfort levels, I don’t think they quite believe me though...,” Luna told him and he could understand why, but it made him a bit sad. He didn’t think he’s like to get a lot of attention and carrying around a bag painted in such a way would definitely get him noticed, but Luna seemed trustworthy and open, regardless of, and rather additional to, her whimsy. He chose not to say that, and instead informed her that he thought her bag was magnificent and would be honored to have something painted by her - though, perhaps, not his backpack.

“I didn’t know you were in my Stat class though. You didn’t say anything at dinner the other night,” Draco added as they walked through campus, he wasn’t sure where Luna was going, but he didn’t mind trailing along with her since he had so much time before his next class. He was content to walk with her for a bit until she got where she was going. 

“Oh, I’m not,” She smiled over at him, her hair fluttered slightly in the soft end-of-summer air, “Sometimes I like sitting in classes I don’t have to see what they’re like. Professor Vector was nice about it last semester.”

“Oh,” Draco wasn’t sure how to respond to that, (especially since the class had been short and with no content - auditing classes wasn’t unfamiliar to him, but to do so during syllabus week seemed odd), but he didn’t have to.

“This is me,” Luna told him as they neared a tall building, “See you around, Dragon.” And before he could correct her, she walked off, her bright backpack octopus seeming to wave a goodbye to him as she disappeared through a heavy door. Draco stared after her for a beat, bemusedly off-kilter, before deciding to head over to the Common Room to kill the time before his next class.

The Common Room was a tall, beautiful building in the middle of campus. One side of the building - the one facing away from the school buildings and on-campus housing, and instead looking out at the forest and greenery off in the distance - was made completely of glass, displaying the large array of comfy couches and coffee tables within, along with computer labs and small office spaces throughout its three floors. Draco made his way through a set of glass doors and his nose greeted by the smell of fresh coffee and baked goods. He walked slowly through the first floor of the building until he got to a set of elevators. Stepping into the one that opened and spilled a few people out, he pressed a button for the third floor and waited, listening distractedly to the muffled sounds of the elevator mechanics working around him. Upon reaching his destination, Draco made his way to a sizable room labeled “The Lounge.” The Lounge was a cozy space with a fireplace that was almost always lit and full of soft, slightly worn couches which one could sink into comfortably. Draco had discovered the Lounge during his first semester at Hogwarts while looking through the Common Room for a place to sit away from the swarms of students. He had stumbled across it his fourth week into school and ended up spending a lot of time there. It was nice to find that the Lounge had not changed at all during Draco’s absence, and that in itself was surreal and slightly disorienting. It was blissfully quiet with only a few other students in the room, far enough away from each other that it wouldn’t be awkward for Draco to pick his favorite spot - the huge light grey loveseat by a window - and plop himself down, resituating himself in such a familiar place. 

Draco placed his messenger bag in his lap and opened it in order extract his laptop and earphones to shuffle through his music as he scrolled mostly aimlessly through the internet. Placing his bag down on the floor in front of him a moment later, Draco slipped off his shoes and curled up on his couch, his computer secure on his stomach, warming his belly as it worked. Over the next hour, there was movement around him, his fellow Lounge loungers shifting in their seats with an occasional person stepping into or out of the room, but Draco was lost to them, so engrossed in his own endeavors that he almost forgot to check the time. Luckily, he managed to glance at the clock on his screen to realize that he only had ten minutes to get to his next class. He knew he didn't really need to worry that much, after all, it was syllabus week and it never took that long to get through the various buildings in Hogwarts - but that didn't stop Draco from unceremoniously untangling himself from the comfortable seat and scrambling to pull his things together. He made his way as quickly and quietly as possible out of the Lounge, nodded awkwardly to one of the students who looked up as he passed, and made his way out of the Common Room. 

Draco’s class was that history of sexuality one with Harry, so he could most likely count on having someone to sit next to. It was taught by Dr. Remus J. Lupin who was relatively well known on campus - or at least within the humanities majors - for being a fantastic and understanding teacher. His ratemyprofessor granted him a 4.9/5, the red chili pepper of hotness (which Draco was sure people meant as a compliment, despite the creepiness of the rating), and a plethora of glowing, praise-filled comments. Draco had heard about him before and was intrigued to take a class with him. Harry being there was honestly just a wonderful bonus. 

The moment Draco stepped through the open door to the classroom the knot of worry that had tied itself inside his chest as he power walked his way over unraveled slightly. Dr. Lupin looked over at him with a pleasant welcoming smile as he walked in, Draco tried to offer one in return and wasn’t so confident he managed to do so. Harry wasn’t there yet, so Draco chose a seat towards the middle of the class with empty seats on either side and hoped Harry would get there and choose to sit next to him before someone else did. A minute before class began, Harry walked in talking jovially to a person Draco didn't recognize. He spotted Draco and waved at him enthusiastically - causing Draco to wave back but feel a pull to duck his head self consciously that he squashed down immediately - before directing himself and his friend to sit by Draco. Before Harry’s friend could introduce himself, Dr. Lupin stepped out from behind the desk at the front of the room and caught everyone’s attention. The room quieted as Dr. Lupin began to speak.

“Hi everyone, I'm Dr. Remus Lupin, though I’d prefer if you called me Remus. I finished my doctorate a few years ago and am happy to have the honor of returning the education I received at Hogwarts University to all of you.” His smile was kind as he spoke and when he looked around the room, Draco had to stop himself from smiling back, not wanting to seem strange. “Let's start by going around the room so you all can introduce yourselves to me and the rest of your class. Please share your name, pronouns, and majors and/or minors, and a fun thing you did this summer - annoying question, I know, but I was us all to get to know each other a bit better. Why don't we start with you?” Dr. Lupin said, gesturing with both hands open-faced to a girl sitting to the left- and front-most seat of the classroom. 

As they slowly made their way around the room, the students twisted in their seats to look at people as they talked which was both nice and intimidating at the same time. Some people stumbled through their introductions while others powered through, seemingly used to doing things like this. Draco didn't really think he had anything to show for this summer and so when it was his turn to speak he mumbled out something about giving himself time to relax. He felt slightly undignified declaring his indecision in the case of his major, but was gratified to note that he wasn't the only one. He learned that Harry’s friend was named Oliver Woods and that Harry had gone to a Battle-of-the-Bands type event with Ron and Krum. Oliver’s fun summer fact was his engagement with a local soccer team and placing third in a small tournament. He was most likely one of Cedric’s friends, Draco figured, which was how Harry knew him. Draco’s assumptions were confirmed when he followed Harry and Oliver out of the classroom once Dr. Lupin dismissed the class after skimming quickly over the syllabus and asking if anyone had questions. There were a few, but they didn’t take long for him to answer 

“How’s your day been so far?” Harry asked Draco as they walked toward the Great Hall having decided to go eat lunch. Oliver bid them a hurried goodbye, explaining he had a class in ten minutes. Draco felt a bit sorry for him, but his schedule tomorrow was similarly hectic, with his english class and other history class with only fifteen minutes separating them. He was glad today he only had two classes and that they were both in the morning.

“So far so good,” he answered, “I had Stat earlier today, which was fine. I mean, it’s syllabus week so she - Vector - just went over the quizzes and exam dates and stuff.” He wanted to say something about Luna but was unsure how to approach the subject, not wanting to seem really weirded out by someone who Harry was friends with, but figured it would be stranger if he didn’t say anything at all. “It was kind of weird, though, Luna was in my class. She said she wasn’t actually enrolled in the class, she was just sitting in. It was nice to see her, but it seems strange to audit a class so early in the semester…”

Harry grinned, “Sounds like something Luna would do, honestly, she’s her own kind of person.”

“Yeah, seems like it. And her bag was amazing - have you seen it? Well I’m sure you have but it’s painted like an octopus and she offered to paint mine.”

“Oh, yeah, classic Luna,” Harry said with a grin, “She offers to paint everyone’s book bag. I think Neville is the only one who let her. I thought about it but I usually take my backpack to work and I didn’t want anything outrageous on it - not that I think she would do something outrageous, but you know…”

“Yeah I understand. I’m a bit tempted, but I don’t know if I want to stand out so much. Her art is really beautiful, from what I saw of her bag, so I asked if she would paint on something that wasn’t my backpack.”

“That’s really nice of you, Luna’s really talented but people sometimes let her weirdness get in the way of them being friends with or even friendly to her,” Harry said thoughtfully as he stepped in front of Draco to open the door to the dining room, holding it for Draco to walk through before following him inside. “Let’s find a table and drop our stuff off and then get food? So we don’t have to carry our bags around.”

“What if someone takes our stuff, though?” Draco asked as they waded through the sea of tables until Harry found an open booth that he liked.

“No one will, I promise,” he said, setting his bag down on one of the sides, “I do this all the time. Everyone’s too focused on their own lives to notice other people leaving their stuff around. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone getting their stuff stolen - at least not in this way.”

“Okay,” Draco said a bit hesitantly, but he set his bag down on the opposite side and followed Harry over to the buffets. They split up after that, in search of different kinds of foods. By the time Draco made his way back to the table with two plates full of food, Harry was already sitting down and Blaise was with him.

“Ran into Blaise and I invited him to join us. Hope that’s ok,” Harry told him. 

“Yeah, of course,” Draco said, setting his plates down and sliding down on his side of the booth. He smiled at Harry and Blaise across from him. “Hi Blaise.”

“Hey, Draco,” Blaise said, happily, spearing a tomato with his fork and popping it into his mouth, looking at Draco as he bit into it. 

“Cool,” Harry said and began to dig into his own meal.

The three of them ate quietly for a few moments. Draco then stood up to get himself a glass of water and asked if either Harry or Blaise wanted some too and they both said yes. A few minutes later, Draco was making his way slowly across the Great Hall, his fingers stretched over the three cups, so as not to spill any water. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone approaching him so he came to a stop. Turning his head slightly he realized it was one of Theo’s friends and found himself unsure what to do. The man walked up to him and offered a strange smile which Draco did not return.

“Hey, you’re one of Theo’s friends right?” Theo’s friend asked Draco. Draco just shook his head no. “Oh, I thought you looked familiar and I was going to invite you to sit with us, but ...yeah... Sorry about that.”

“No, it’s fine, don’t worry about it. He was my roommate for a semester, but that was a long time ago. I don’t think we were ever friends though.”

“Ok well, have a good day, I guess,” Theo’s friend said and then began walking away.

“You too?” Draco said to his retreating back. He stared after him for a beat before shaking his head and continuing on his way back to his table. He did not really remember ever meeting any of Theo’s friends, especially not this one. Draco wasn’t sure how he felt about Theo’s crowd being able to recognize him mostly because he didn’t know any of them.

Draco set down the glasses on the table and sat back down in the booth.

Blaise asked, “What took so long?” before grabbing the closest glass to him and taking a sip.

“I don’t know, it was weird.” Draco answered, “This random guy walked up to me and asked if I was Theo’s - my roommate a while ago - friend and if I had said yes, would have asked me to come sit with him. I didn’t recognize him at all.”

“Can you point him out to me?” Blaise asked and he and Harry lifted their heads and started looking around the dining hall. Draco looked around as well but couldn’t see the guy so he said no. “Ok,” Blaise said, picking up his fork again, “weird. Let me know if it happens again. I might know those guys.”

“Nah, it’s ok, I don’t really care. I just thought it was weird.”

***

Because Draco didn’t have a class on Friday and Pansy had one class in the morning, they planned to talk around lunch time so that they’d have time to talk through the afternoon without having to rearrange Friday night plans - which for Pansy involved illicit substances and dancing and beautiful people with too much money, and for Draco was more uncertain and probably contained some combination of his new group of friends or just his bed, some tea, and his computer.

Draco let himself sleep in Friday morning, having stayed up late reading the night before. He spread out on his bed when he woke up, drowsy and feeling soft, and looked up at the ceiling without really seeing it. He’d had a strange dream - not a bad one, but definitely not normal - involving a gigantic teapot, Harry’s green eyes blinking at him, and an impromptu flight amongst the stars that winked and giggled as he soared past them - and he tried to hold onto it, going over some of the details in his mind so he wouldn’t forget. He did not know what his dream was trying to tell him, but he felt sure it was more positive than anything else and wanted to commit it to memory. Eventually, he hoisted himself off his bed to grab at his backpack in order to put out a pen and his journal, rolling over onto his stomach so he could write easier and remain lying down. Draco tried to write out as much of the dream as he could but it sounded more poetic than he meant it to. He tried to sketch out some of it, and managed a bit of the teapot but it fell short of his imagination and he gave up, choosing instead to put it away.

Shifting so he was on his back once more, Draco let his hands run slowly up and down his body. At first, he wasn’t aware of it, just lost in his thoughts, but he started getting a bit tingly and let himself explore the expanse of his skin with more intentionality. He started by smoothing one hand over the length of the other arm, and then switched them, feeling the soft hairs of his arms and the little goosebumps that followed his kicking the blanket away and letting the air of the room settle around his naked skin. He wished he had freckles that he inevitably wouldn’t be able to count or that he had darker body hair that would stand out and contrast his ridiculously pale skin, but tried to let those thoughts go. Next, he took off his sleep shirt and let it fall to the floor by his bed. He brought his hands up to his collarbones and slid them to his neck, tracing the lines of it up and down; here, he wished for someone else’s hands to touch, a hickey to press down on, or a necklace to play with but he never liked wearing jewelry all that much. Draco’s hands traced down to his nipples and he let his fingers play with them, circling and pinching until they were hard and achy in a way that made his lower stomach warm. He traced over the tips of them for a bit, marveling at how sensitive he was to his own touch.

After that, he didn’t have much patience and brought his hands past his stomach to his sleep shorts, pushing them off him and then the bed without ceremony. It doesn’t take him long to conjure up images in his head of moving bodies and sweat-soaked skin and roaming hands, letting himself sink into the familiarity of his own imagined pornography and his hands do the work. Draco’s right hand came up to pinch at his nipples again, pulling each in turn, prodding them so that they remained hard and sensitive on his chest as his left hand spent time with his cock and balls, playing and teasing. He let his breath get heavy and his stomach grow tight with the slow building pleasure, holding off his orgasm for as long as possible, wanting to draw it out and let this be more than the quick jerk-offs he’d allowed himself the last few days in his shower. 

In the end, he lent himself to pleasure and came, coating his lower stomach with his orgasm, choosing to breathe through his nose so as not to make any distinctive sounds, more for his own benefit than his roommates. He often found his own noises of pleasure to be rather boring and unattractive and usually did not let himself make all that much sound when jacking off, regardless of how alone he might be. Sighing at the cooling mess on his stomach, Draco reached up and grabbed a tissue from the box he left conveniently close to his bed. He cleaned himself off and decided to take a shower before eating a snack and getting ready for his video call with Pansy. He took his time with his assigned tasks, just as he had with his body, letting the new routine of this living situation pour into his bones and guide his movements. He wanted to be as relaxed as possible when talking to his closest friend but he also wanted to enjoy the nothingness of the time that he had before they talked. In that regard, he hummed as he showered, barely realizing it until it seemed too late to stop - if Ron was around and had been listening - not that Ron would have cared, probably, but for Draco’s own feelings of embarrassment at the idea of someone listening to him hum and then noticing him stopping to do so - all of it was ridiculous of course, because who would care about any of it - but Draco let these thoughts steep in his brain as he washed out the shampoo from his hair, almost grateful for his own internalized embarrassment because of how normal it was for him to feel this way about himself. _Comfort in one's own quirks is quite a feat,_ he thought to himself.

Draco, with his hair damp and newly adorned clothes neatly situated on his body, sat on his bed with a breakfast bar and his travel mug of freshly made tea, and pulled his computer to him. He leaned back on his cushions as he scrolled through his emails, waiting for Pansy’s facetime invite to come through. He knew she might be late but did not mind in the slightest - it wasn’t as if he had anything pressing to do anyway and he was looking forward to their conversation. Just as he was about to leave his email behind and check on a blog he liked to keep updated with, a notification came in from Pansy, and he clicked to that instead. It took a moment for the screen to change and his own camera to work, so he adjusted his position and fiddled slightly with his drying hair. 

Pansy came on screen looking as polished and beautiful as ever, a full face of makeup and grace that he so much appreciated. Of course, they had not always gotten along, but he didn’t ever think he’d tire of looking at her face, made-up or not, the symmetry of it and the clearness of it and the way it was able to hide and control her emotions so completely. He let his eyes move over the image of her face on his screen for a second before offering a small smile and raising his hand in greeting. She returned it and asked him how his first week was. 

“It was ok, stange obviously, but it was nice to start getting in the swing of things, you know? How was your first week back?”

Pansy raised her eyebrows at him “No, I don’t know. I’ll answer that after you’ve told me how things have actually been for you. Last time we really talked, you were so bored and depressed you actually wanted to hear the Daphne/Millicent drama. I want to know what’s finally gotten you out of your _mood_.”

He let out a breath and tried to figure out how to articulate his feelings, “I know, I’m sorry Pans, we really should have talked during the summer.”

She paused before speaking, as if she wanted to chose her words carefully for him, and she probably did. He knew that she didn’t want him to feel guilty about their lack of correspondence, but his life and his choices did not exist within a vacuum and they affected her as well, to some extent. At the very least, she was his best friend who had a right to know what was going on his life and be able to help him through it. He knew all that, but was glad she took her time before sharing her next words - the words themselves not being that important, but her understanding of him and what he needed to hear was, to show him that she truly was a friend of him and was someone he could rely on. “It’s ok, love, but I didn’t want to push you too much before, and now to see that you’ve managed to change you life so completely is startling. I just want to know how you are and how I can fit in. The drama and ridiculousness of my life can wait a bit until we talk more about _you_ , obviously.” 

“Of course I am, Pans, I just didn’t know how to talk about it before and I still don’t know.”

“Well could you start by talking through how you decided to go back to school?”

Draco let out a small, shocked laugh, “that might be the only question I know how to answer! Or at least, it’s an easier one.” He paused and let himself gather his thoughts before continuing, “I got a letter from HU a while ago reminding me that my ‘spot’ or whatever was going to be passed on to someone else if I didn’t come back - since it’d been like a year and a half. I had been so bored and apathetic over the summer, a note like that kind of felt like a _sign_ maybe, or at least a nudge in a different direction. I mean, I kind of sat there and just realized how little I had done since my parents died and how unhappy I was. I mean I’m not sure if I’m happy now, but you know, the note kind of just helped me ask myself a question I’d been avoiding, you know?”

“Do you mean, that it made you question why you had been unhappy and apathetic for a year? Or bigger questions, like what you wanted to do with your life?”

“Both, I guess, but mostly the first. I’m really not sure what I want to do in my life, I can’t really imagine what it will be like in a year or five - though I guess going to school for the next three years or so might help with that - which is part of the reason I decided to go back. I just couldn’t sit in the Manor any longer and do nothing. I didn’t want to go back to doing meaningless work and I was just so _bored_ and I don’t know, I’m sure there’s some stuff going on with how I feel about my parents, but I haven’t worked that out yet, I’m not even sure how, really. I’m just… I don’t know... But mostly I think I just wanted to feel like I was doing something again and Mr. Dobby agreed with me and then I went to see Ms. McGonagall who’s an undergraduate administration counselor - she’s the one who sent me the letter - and yeah, I guess I was just ready to go back to school.”

“Oh, Draco,” Pansy sighed, even through her emotional mask, Draco knew that expression and how much she wished they were in the same place so she could play with his hair or give him a hug or just be in the same _space_ as him, and he wished that so deeply as well. He knew that showed on his face more than hers and that she would be able to see his longing for their physical closeness. “Stuff with your parents is hard, I’m not really sure how I would handle it if I was in your situation. But I think going back to school is a good thing for you, if only to assuage the _boredom_.” there she gave him a tiny smirk, so he knew she was only throwing that word back at him out of love.

“Yeah, and I mean, it really hasn’t been all that bad. The first week of classes went by really smoothly - though, admittedly, it’s only syllabus week, so who really knows - and I’ve made a couple of friends since I got on campus, which I guess was about two and a little weeks ago.”

“Oooh, friends did you say? Tell me about them,” Pansy demanded, delight and eagerness slipping into her features easily, in a wonderfully practiced manner - Draco delighted in being able to notice. He had a brief desire from a more dramatic group of friends like hers if only to share gossip and experiences, but reminded himself that it was only a small time that he’d known them and there was plenty of time later for drama, though hopefully not too much, but just enough that Pansy would find them interesting. Maybe she would visit and meet them one day, that is, if they remained his friends long enough and if their friendships developed into something close to the relationship that Draco and Pansy shared. These thoughts flashed through his mind as he attempted, once again, to gather his thoughts and figure out the best way to talk to his longest standing friend about all the new people that had entered so recently and so unexpectedly into his life.

***

Harry was quickly becoming finding spending time with Draco extremely enjoyable. At first, he worried that the whole thing would be perfectly awkward, seeing as they had first met when he was at his job and then again so suddenly when Draco just beginning to get his bearings. He shouldn’t have worried, as the two of them got along really well during both of those accidental meetings and then later twice a week for their shared history class. That, in all honestly, was what had really worried Harry at first. There were several reasons for this anxiety, the first being that Harry wanted to get to know Draco but he wasn’t sure if that was because he wanted to be his friend or because he found him attractive (turned out both were true, and Harry was not surprised at himself in the slightest). A different reason was that sometimes people prefer to keep their class-friends and their normal-friends (whatever that meant) separate from each other and it was possible that Draco was one of those people. It became apparent early on that Draco was, in fact, not that kind of person, but nevertheless, Harry wondered at this. Finally, he so badly wanted Ron to have a good experience with Draco as a roommate and have that roommate join their closely knit friend-circle, that he was afraid he might come off strangely to the man in question and push him away. Despite all this, Harry learned that Draco wanted to be his friend just as badly as he wanted to be his (though in a more quiet, subdued way) and that all his worries were baseless and anxiety-driven more than anything else. And, admittedly, Harry never hesitated in his friendship toward Draco no matter all these feelings, as that was not in his nature. 

In the first month of classes, Harry spent a lot of his time with Draco. Their shared class was held twice a week and they usually had lunch together once it was over. Often times, Harry’s (and now Draco’s) friends would join them - Mostly Blaise, but other others came in and out depending on their schedules. Harry, surprisingly having figured out how to manage procrastination once in university, helped Draco get in the groove of doing school work on a regular and normal basis, by securing a few hours here and there every few days or so for them to spend in the library. Sometimes they would get a study room on the quiet floors so that they could talk to each other and muddle through homework together, and other times they got big tables on the second floor of the library that was notably not quiet at all, and a few of their friends would join them. On top of all that, Harry was frequently spending time with Ron when he wasn’t doing school or RA related duties, and could often be found lounging in bed with him or in their common area. Draco usually would not join Ron and Harry when they were in Ron’s room, but he would happily sit with them as they watched movies or played board games or whatever in the open space. Harry thought it might be nice for Draco to join in his and Ron’s cuddle-times, but he knew it was too soon to invite him along and just had to hold onto the hope that one day they would be close enough friends that he could. 

By the time it was Midterms, Harry was pretty confident in his new friendship with Draco. There were a lot of things about each other that they did not know and so many boundaries between them that only needed time to fade away, but none of that was bad, it felt good, and it left a lot of room for them to grow into their relationship. Draco, however, did not seem to be very confident about anything at present. Whereas Harry often thought of himself as an average student, he managed to be quite good at time management and diligently working through stress rather than succumbing to it. His new friend, on the other hand, seemed to drown a bit under the stress of due dates and large graded assignments. Draco’s time managing skills were decent when he had encouragement of others and felt passionately about the work that he had to do, but due to anxiety that often felt crippling and assignments that either were too important to him or not important enough, those skills did not matter - Draco could plan all he wanted, but it was really difficult for him to just _start_. Seeing Draco struggle as the Midterms grew nearer made Harry’s heart hurt. 

At first, he wasn’t sure what he could do to help, but he wanted to show Draco how important their friendship was to him and also that he could provide emotional support for the duration of Midterms, as well as all the rest of them (and Finals) to come. After a particularly short study session with Draco in the library, in which Draco expressed his nerves for an upcoming paper he had due for an American history class with a professor Harry had never had before, Harry made a decision - to go to Hermione for advice. She was usually good at coming up with ideas and had a lot of tools for being a supportive, sympathetic, and empathetic friend and Harry trusted her with basically anything.

> [to Hermy 5:56] hey you around get dinner with my please. need advice  
>  [from Hermy 6:00] Yeah! Is it ok if we meet in 15 mins? I’m in my dorm rn.  
>  [from Hermy 6:01] Blaise just texted me and asked about dinner too. Is it ok if he joins us?  
>  [to Hermy 6:03] k ill get us a table  
>  [to Hermy 6:03] yeah but can he give us like 10 mins to talk tho?  
>  [from Hermy 6:04] Blaise says, of course! He’ll give me like a 20 min head start before he joins us  
>  [to Hermy 6:07] sounds good 

Harry put his phone away as he stepped into the Great Hall. He scanned the building for a good place to sit that Hermione would be able to find easily, since it was still early in the evening and most people would not be getting dinner for another forty-five minutes or so, it didn’t take him all that long. Picking a table finally, Harry dropped his backpack and jacket onto a seat and walked towards the buffet tables in order to fix a meal for himself.

> [to Hermy 6:15] got a table near front of main entrance and food  
>  [from Hermy 6:18] I see you! Getting food and then I’ll come sit

“Hey, Harry,” Hermione said brightly as she sat down across from him. He raised his head to grin at her over a mouthful of food (Hermione made a disgusted face at him) before swallowing loudly and setting his utensils down. “What’s up?”

“Hey, so, I was hoping maybe you could help me,” Harry began, before wiping his mouth with a napkin and taking a sip of water. “Draco’s been really stressed out about Midterms coming up and I want to try to help him, but I’m not sure how. I thought you might be able to think something up with me.” 

Hermione nodded along to Harry words. “Dean said something to me the other day about Seamus feeling the weight of the upcoming exams. Neville also - I was talking to him and Luna yesterday and we thought maybe getting a study group together to meet every day might be helpful. Having a bunch of people who all need to do work could be motivating.” Harry considered her words as she continued, “We’ve kind of been doing that the past few semesters, but maybe making it official in some way could create a productive atmosphere.”

Harry stabbed a piece of broccoli with his fork, looking down at it for a moment before sharing his thoughts with his friend, “I think that’s a really good idea. We can have snacks and do silly themed fifteen-minute breaks on a schedule. And when Midterms are over we could have a party!” He chomped down on the broccoli in excitement and chewed it while Hermione smiled at him before settling more comfortably down in her seat to eat her own meal. 

“That would be so fun!” Hermione said after some chewing, “though I think you should talk to Draco before we get this ball rolling, to check in with him about this happening and find out if he thinks it might be something that could help him. If he thinks it might not, we can come up with a new plan.”

Hermione, then, abandoning her plateful of food, extracted her tablet from her handbag and started tapping at it. When Harry inquired as to what she was doing, she turned it around and showed him the short lists she had begun of: people to invite, types of exams to study for, snacks to buy, and short fifteen-minute activities that could break up the monotony of studying. He took the tablet from her and added a few ideas of his own so that she could start eating as he was mostly finished his meal at this point. By the time he and Hermione felt confident in the lists they had created, Blaise made his way over to their table with Luna and a person Harry did not recognize in tow. The three of them were all carrying plates and cups and they easily fit themselves around the table.

“Sorry it took me a while,” Blaise said, leaning towards Hermione, “Luna asked if she and Cho could join us. I figured it would give you two plenty of time to talk about whatever you needed to talk about.”

“No worries,” Hermione assured him, smiling at the newcomers. She looked over at Cho and introduced herself and Harry along with their pronouns. Cho returned the gesture with her own name and pronouns, throwing in her major and class year as an added measure. It turned out she was a senior - older than all of them, including Draco. She and Luna had been platonically dating throughout the semester so far and they had decided maybe it was time for her to meet the rest of Luna’s friends. 

For the rest of the meal, the group of five exchanged stories about their weeks and the projects they were working on. Cho was doing her thesis on competition and neo-liberal capitalism within organized sports and how that affected marginalized individuals and Harry was fascinated. He asked her all about her research and methods until Luna started pulling her away for some late night bowling. Cho, smiling lovingly at her datemate, asked for a moment so she could exchange contact info with Harry and, winking, told him to text her sometime. 

“You and Draco seem to flirt with everybody,” Hermione remarked about half an hour later as she and Harry walked slowly around campus, content to burn some free time along with a few calories before heading back to their different dormitories. He brushed off the comment and asked her whether or not she wanted to go to the clearing in the woods and get high but she pointed out that both she and Harry were tired enough that if they went to Hermione’s dorm to get her bowl and the little canister of weed she kept tucked away in a drawer, he would probably just end up sleeping on her bed rather than going back out. He smiled and agreed with a bit of a blush on his cheeks and suggested instead that they keep walking around a bit before heading over to hers, which they did. They were walking slowly and swapping thoughts as they came, trading gossip and stray ideas here and there.

Harry finally brought up her comment about flirting again and asked, “what did you mean? Who does Draco flirt with?” hoping she would expand a bit on her point. He knew that he tended to have a habit of flirting with a lot of people without even meaning to, but hadn’t really noticed Draco doing the same. If he had missed something like that about his new friend, he wanted to know.

“Oh, you know, you and Cho just now and also everyone you ever talk to, and Draco and Tonks from Madam Puddifoot’s flirt all the time.”

“Yeah I mean I don’t mean to, it just happens, you know that.” They smiled at each other, and he pressed on, “I’ve noticed him and Tonks, they’ve gone out for drinks a few times. Who else does he flirt with?”

“Oh, Luna, Blaise, um… Ron vaguely and sometimes you too.” Hermione bumped her shoulder with his for emphasis and smirked at him, “I don’t really think he notices that he does it actually, but you two definitely flirt a bit. Maybe if this thing with Cho doesn’t go anywhere, you could try more with Draco.”

“Oh, well I don’t know about Cho, I just met her! And she’s with Luna. I thought maybe we’d hang out a bit, maybe hook up, but nothing serious. With Draco it’s different, I don’t know. I wouldn’t want it to be just a thing.” Here Harry realized how much he actually wanted to talk about this. It had been floating around his brain for a while and it definitely was time to talk it through with someone, and Hermione was such a good option for him. She was perspective and a good listener and knew him so well. He let himself voice as much as he understood, “I like flirting with him, but I don’t think I’ll push for anything more unless I’m more sure of our friendship as a whole and that I won’t lose that if he doesn’t want to be in a different kind of relationship with me. But also,” at this Harry made sure to catch Hermione’s eye so she knew that he was thinking through this seriously, “I’ve only really known him for a little bit more than a month, and I can’t be presumptuous about anything until I know him better and for longer. I just… I don’t know, Hermione, he’s so pretty and interesting and I love being in class with him. I was so happy to see that he was Ron’s roommate because McGonagall even seemed to like him when he came in during the summer and that’s a really good sign. But he’s also kind of quiet and drawn, and pretty anxious, and I don’t want to push him away or anything and I think I would if I made my feelings a bit more clear to him - my feelings, which are, again, only a few weeks old.”

“Well you seem to have thought through a lot of your feelings.” She bumped her shoulders with him again, “I mean yeah, you’ve only known him for a little bit of time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get to know each other through a relationship that’s maybe a little less platonic. Don’t sell yourself short.”

“I’m not selling myself short, I just feel like this deserves more time, I guess.” He suddenly felt extremely vulnerable and very much like he wanted a subject change. “I do want to keep talking about this, and I definitely need to, but I’m feeling a bit raw about it, Hermione. Can we go to your dorm now and save it for later, maybe?”

Hermione stopped walking and turned towards him, looking for something in his face, which she apparently found. She reached forward and gave him a quick hug before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards her dormitory. “Sounds good,” she said over her shoulder at him, “it’s been too long since we gotten high.” Harry laughed at that and allowed her to drag him along, glad for their comradery and the easy ways that she accepted and loved him.

* * *

A few hours later, Hermione lay on her bed, belly up and glassy eyes blinking up at the ceiling. She had a friend, Harry, tucked neatly around her body, warm and heavy where he pressed into her. She slowly, so slowly, brought an arm up and started petting at his hair, which was attached to his head that was up against her collarbone, breathing warm air across the top of her breasts through her soft, warm sleep shirt. She lazily twirled a lock of hair around her finger and felt the slide of the thick black strands pull and loosen around her skin. Hermione’s thoughts were lazy and floaty as they lay there breathing together. His seemed to pull him closer to sleep while she drifted along through the high. Eventually she allowed herself to blink slowly into sleep along with him, content with the environment around her, the way her body felt, and how unbelievably soft everything was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sincere apologies for this taking so long and that is is a bit shorter than my previous chapters. will try to post the next one a bit sooner, but no promises, mostly because of school and anxiety. hope this chapter is as enjoyable to read as it was for me to write!


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